alternative path mysql.cnf doesn't exist

[Bump]

Ubuntu 18.04 updated to latest:

root@ubuntu:~# apt dist-upgrade
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Calculating upgrade... Done
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
2 not fully installed or removed.
After this operation, 0 B of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] Y
Setting up mysql-server-5.7 (5.7.23-0ubuntu0.18.04.1) ...
update-alternatives: error: alternative path /etc/mysql/mysql.cnf doesn't exist
dpkg: error processing package mysql-server-5.7 (--configure):
 installed mysql-server-5.7 package post-installation script subprocess returned error exit status 2
No apport report written because the error message indicates its a followup error from a previous failure.
                                                                                                          dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of mysql-server:
 mysql-server depends on mysql-server-5.7; however:
  Package mysql-server-5.7 is not configured yet.

dpkg: error processing package mysql-server (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
Errors were encountered while processing:
 mysql-server-5.7
 mysql-server
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
root@ubuntu:~#

[Bump (bump55)]

Fixed:

root@ubuntu:~# apt remove --purge mysql-server-5.7
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following package was automatically installed and is no longer required:
  libevent-core-2.1-6
Use 'apt autoremove' to remove it.
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  mysql-server* mysql-server-5.7*
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 2 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
2 not fully installed or removed.
After this operation, 48,4 MB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] Y
(Reading database ... 394904 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing mysql-server (5.7.23-0ubuntu0.18.04.1) ...
Removing mysql-server-5.7 (5.7.23-0ubuntu0.18.04.1) ...
update-alternatives: warning: alternative /etc/mysql/my.cnf.fallback (part of link group my.cnf) doesn't exist; removing from list of alternatives
update-alternatives: warning: alternative /etc/mysql/mysql.cnf (part of link group my.cnf) doesn't exist; removing from list of alternatives
update-alternatives: warning: /etc/alternatives/my.cnf is dangling; it will be updated with best choice
Processing triggers for man-db (2.8.3-2) ...
(Reading database ... 394827 files and directories currently installed.)
Purging configuration files for mysql-server-5.7 (5.7.23-0ubuntu0.18.04.1) ...
Processing triggers for ureadahead (0.100.0-20) ...
Processing triggers for systemd (237-3ubuntu10.3) ...
root@ubuntu:~#

[Andreas Hasenack (ahasenack)]

I'm seeing a lot of errors in the mysql package that are about files and directories in /etc missing. I don't know what people are doing, if they are following some broken tutorial out there, or if there is some unknown scenario where mysql configuration files are being deleted from /etc.

It definitely doesn't happen on a clean install, and I would love to understand what people are doing to get into this state. Until then, I'll mark this bug as incomplete.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for mysql-5.7 (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]