I just wiped all mysql server completely, including databases, and tried to install 5.7 in xenial but it still fails. I had to do quite a few manual steps ... Details below. First, the my.cnf file has the line !includedir /etc/mysql/conf.d/ ... but the dir /etc/mysql/conf.d/ does not exist. This should be removed as it blocks the install! Full steps (note that I'm wiping everything, including all databases!): # apt-get purge mysql-server* # rm -rf /etc/mysql /var/lib/mysql* /var/log/mysql* # apt-get -V install mysql-server Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done The following additional packages will be installed: mysql-server-5.7 (5.7.11-0ubuntu5) mysql-server-core-5.7 (5.7.11-0ubuntu5) Suggested packages: tinyca (0.7.5-6) The following NEW packages will be installed: mysql-server (5.7.11-0ubuntu5) mysql-server-5.7 (5.7.11-0ubuntu5) mysql-server-core-5.7 (5.7.11-0ubuntu5) 0 upgraded, 3 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded. Need to get 0 B/10.1 MB of archives. After this operation, 94.6 MB of additional disk space will be used. Do you want to continue? [Y/n] Preconfiguring packages ... Selecting previously unselected package mysql-server-core-5.7. (Reading database ... 56768 files and directories currently installed.) Preparing to unpack .../mysql-server-core-5.7_5.7.11-0ubuntu5_amd64.deb ... Unpacking mysql-server-core-5.7 (5.7.11-0ubuntu5) ... Selecting previously unselected package mysql-server-5.7. Preparing to unpack .../mysql-server-5.7_5.7.11-0ubuntu5_amd64.deb ... grep: /etc/mysql/: No such file or directory Unpacking mysql-server-5.7 (5.7.11-0ubuntu5) ... Selecting previously unselected package mysql-server. Preparing to unpack .../mysql-server_5.7.11-0ubuntu5_all.deb ... Unpacking mysql-server (5.7.11-0ubuntu5) ... Processing triggers for man-db (2.7.5-1) ... Processing triggers for systemd (229-4ubuntu1) ... Processing triggers for ureadahead (0.100.0-19) ... Setting up mysql-server-core-5.7 (5.7.11-0ubuntu5) ... Setting up mysql-server-5.7 (5.7.11-0ubuntu5) ... update-alternatives: using /etc/mysql/mysql.cnf to provide /etc/mysql/my.cnf (my.cnf) in auto mode Job for mysql.service failed because the control process exited with error code. See "systemctl status mysql.service" and "journalctl -xe" for details. invoke-rc.d: initscript mysql, action "start" failed. dpkg: error processing package mysql-server-5.7 (--configure): subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1 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 Processing triggers for systemd (229-4ubuntu1) ... Processing triggers for ureadahead (0.100.0-19) ... Errors were encountered while processing: mysql-server-5.7 mysql-server E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1) # systemctl status mysql.service ● mysql.service - MySQL Community Server Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/mysql.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled) Active: inactive (dead) (Result: exit-code) since Tue 2016-04-12 19:57:53 BST; 3min 1s ago Process: 19174 ExecStartPre=/usr/share/mysql/mysql-systemd-start pre (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE) Main PID: 14227 (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS) Apr 12 19:57:53 lin systemd[1]: mysql.service: Control process exited, code=exited status=1 Apr 12 19:57:53 lin systemd[1]: Failed to start MySQL Community Server. Apr 12 19:57:53 lin systemd[1]: mysql.service: Unit entered failed state. Apr 12 19:57:53 lin systemd[1]: mysql.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'. Apr 12 19:57:53 lin systemd[1]: mysql.service: Service hold-off time over, scheduling restart. Apr 12 19:57:53 lin systemd[1]: Stopped MySQL Community Server. Apr 12 19:57:53 lin systemd[1]: mysql.service: Start request repeated too quickly. Apr 12 19:57:53 lin systemd[1]: Failed to start MySQL Community Server. // Worthless log info! # journalctl -xe -- Unit mysql.service has begun starting up. Apr 12 20:03:00 lin mysql-systemd-start[19459]: MySQL system database not found. Please run mysql_install_db tool. Apr 12 20:03:00 lin systemd[1]: mysql.service: Control process exited, code=exited status=1 Apr 12 20:03:00 lin systemd[1]: Failed to start MySQL Community Server. // Ok ... # mysql_install_db mysql_install_db: Can't read dir of '/etc/mysql/conf.d/' (Errcode: 2 - No such file or directory) mysql_install_db: [ERROR] Fatal error in defaults handling. Program aborted! // grrr, edited my.cnf and commented the line "!includedir /etc/mysql/conf.d/" # mysql_install_db 2016-04-12 20:05:49 [WARNING] mysql_install_db is deprecated. Please consider switching to mysqld --initialize 2016-04-12 20:05:49 [ERROR] The data directory needs to be specified. // grrr! # mysqld --initialize 2016-04-12T19:06:02.223398Z 0 [Warning] TIMESTAMP with implicit DEFAULT value is deprecated. Please use --explicit_defaults_for_timestamp server option (see documentation for more details). 2016-04-12T19:06:02.229248Z 0 [ERROR] --initialize specified but the data directory has files in it. Aborting. 2016-04-12T19:06:02.229663Z 0 [ERROR] Aborting // Christ! # rm -rf /var/lib/mysql* # apt-get install -f // Finally!