old_passwords.cnf: No such file or directory

[Martin Vysny]

Binary package hint: mysql-server

2.6.24-19-server #1 SMP Wed Aug 20 18:43:06 UTC 2008 x86_64 GNU/Linux
Ubuntu 8.04.2

I was unable to connect to a fresh install of mysql-server as the root user didn't work without a password. I was not asked for the password in the installation phase. So I tried sudo apt-get autoremove --purge mysql-server and then sudo apt-get install mysql-server and this happened:

$ sudo apt-get install mysql-server
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
  libdbd-mysql-perl libdbi-perl libnet-daemon-perl libplrpc-perl mysql-client-5.0 mysql-server-5.0
Suggested packages:
  dbishell libcompress-zlib-perl mysql-doc-5.0 tinyca
Recommended packages:
  libhtml-template-perl mailx
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  libdbd-mysql-perl libdbi-perl libnet-daemon-perl libplrpc-perl mysql-client-5.0 mysql-server mysql-server-5.0
0 upgraded, 7 newly installed, 0 to remove and 8 not upgraded.
Need to get 0B/37.3MB of archives.
After this operation, 112MB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? y
Preconfiguring packages ...
Selecting previously deselected package libnet-daemon-perl.
(Reading database ... 26211 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking libnet-daemon-perl (from .../libnet-daemon-perl_0.38-1.1_all.deb) ...
Selecting previously deselected package libplrpc-perl.
Unpacking libplrpc-perl (from .../libplrpc-perl_0.2017-1.1_all.deb) ...
Selecting previously deselected package libdbi-perl.
Unpacking libdbi-perl (from .../libdbi-perl_1.601-1_amd64.deb) ...
Selecting previously deselected package libdbd-mysql-perl.
Unpacking libdbd-mysql-perl (from .../libdbd-mysql-perl_4.005-1_amd64.deb) ...
Selecting previously deselected package mysql-client-5.0.
Unpacking mysql-client-5.0 (from .../mysql-client-5.0_5.0.51a-3ubuntu5.4_amd64.deb) ...
Selecting previously deselected package mysql-server-5.0.
Unpacking mysql-server-5.0 (from .../mysql-server-5.0_5.0.51a-3ubuntu5.4_amd64.deb) ...
Selecting previously deselected package mysql-server.
Unpacking mysql-server (from .../mysql-server_5.0.51a-3ubuntu5.4_all.deb) ...
Setting up libnet-daemon-perl (0.38-1.1) ...
Setting up libplrpc-perl (0.2017-1.1) ...
Setting up libdbi-perl (1.601-1) ...
Setting up libdbd-mysql-perl (4.005-1) ...
Setting up mysql-client-5.0 (5.0.51a-3ubuntu5.4) ...
Setting up mysql-server-5.0 (5.0.51a-3ubuntu5.4) ...
 * Stopping MySQL database server mysqld [ OK ]
/var/lib/dpkg/info/mysql-server-5.0.postinst: line 143: /etc/mysql/conf.d/old_passwords.cnf: No such file or directory
dpkg: error processing mysql-server-5.0 (--configure):
 subprocess post-installation script returned error exit status 1
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of mysql-server:
 mysql-server depends on mysql-server-5.0; however:
  Package mysql-server-5.0 is not configured yet.
dpkg: error processing mysql-server (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
Errors were encountered while processing:
 mysql-server-5.0
 mysql-server
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

[Martin Vysny (vyzivus)]

Okay, fix proposed by http://ohioloco.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=626443 worked. It was necessary to purge mysql-common (if you have a package which depends on mysql-common then just sudo dpkg --purge --force-depends mysql-common; sudo apt-get install -f . In my case, it was proftpd).
How to simulate the bug (probably): install proftpd, then install mysql-server (it shouldn't prompt for a password), then purge mysql-server and try to install it again.

[Mathias Gug (mathiaz)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. You should be prompted for a password when installing mysql-server the first time. How were you installing mysql-server package?

[Martin Vysny (vyzivus)]

Thank you Mathias for quick reply. I did a simple sudo apt-get install mysql-server (there is no X on the server machine, so no GUI package manager). I am sure that it didn't prompt me for the password for the first time I tried this (maybe somebody uninstalled mysql-server earlier without purging it?). I couldn't guess the password so I tried to sudo apt-get autoremove --purge mysql-server (which succeeded) and then sudo apt-get install mysql-server again. This time it asked for the root password correctly, however the installation failed with the above error.