Comment 2 for bug 204042

I didn't really want apparmor to be installed, but thanks for the tip. Nope, I didn't install apparmor-profiles; I don't believe apparmor is necessary for running mysql on Ubuntu.

I was upgrading the whole system, to the best of my recollection, the version numbers were from 5.0.45 under Gutsy to 5.0.51a under Hardy.

The error arose after I clicked on the 'upgrade system' icon on the desktop. It seemed at the time that either the apparmor or the mysql package (or both) did not have the correct dependency settings and/or upgrade checks.

If you are making a mysql server upgrade (or install) depend in any way on apparmor (I think that is a bad idea) you need to have a mysql-server package dependency set, to ensure that the correct apparmor components are present on the system for mysql. The mysql-server package's pre-install script should also check that the correct apparmour configuration settings are made to allow the mysql server to start. A more informative post-install script message wouldn't do any harm either! Likewise, the apparmor package needs to check if there are any services for which it needs to install special configuration files, so it doesn't prevent them from starting.

IMHO, the package management system ought to make it unnecessary for a sysadmin to have to figure out: (1) That there is something new on the system, namely apparmor, preventing a mysqld startup. (2) That an apparmor 'mysql profile' must be installed, sought out and put into 'complain mode' before the mysql server will start.

This bug frightened me. For a minute, I thought I had been magically spirited away to my Solaris box!

Many thanks for looking into this, by the way. Your efforts are very much appreciated!

--Robin