Comment 39 for bug 973951

I could not get the install to work by trying to simulate a clean install (rm of /var/lib/mysql, /var/log/mysql and /etc/mysql). After the install failed, I copied a /etc/mysql that had worked for me previously. At this point, I could start mysql and it works (although I still need to get it working as a service).

Earlier installs of MySQL 5.1 worked fine on my machine; I hit the problem when I tried a new install at the 5.5 version.