Reporting back after doing the purge and install instructions. Here is the output after the apt install instruction: ================== nexargi@server-02:/$ sudo apt install mysql-server Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required: aptitude-common g++-4.8 gcc-4.9-base libboost-iostreams1.54.0 libboost-iostreams1.58.0 libc-ares2 libck-connector0 libcwidget3 libdbd-mysql-perl libdbi-perl libept1.4.12 libgcrypt11-dev libgcrypt20-dev libgnutlsxx27 libgpg-error-dev libisl10 libprocps3 libsigc++-2.0-0c2a libstdc++-4.8-dev libterm-readkey-perl libv8-3.14.5 libxapian22v5 linux-image-3.11.0-15-generic linux-image-extra-3.11.0-15-generic python-chardet python-cheetah python-configobj python-json-pointer python-jsonpatch python-oauth python-pkg-resources python-prettytable python-requests python-serial python-six python-urllib3 python-yaml Use 'sudo apt autoremove' to remove them. The following additional packages will be installed: mysql-server-5.7 mysql-server-core-5.7 Suggested packages: mailx tinyca Recommended packages: libhtml-template-perl The following NEW packages will be installed: mysql-server mysql-server-5.7 mysql-server-core-5.7 0 upgraded, 3 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded. Need to get 0 B/10.6 MB of archives. After this operation, 94.7 MB of additional disk space will be used. Do you want to continue? [Y/n] Y N: Ignoring file '50unattended-upgrades.ucf-old' in directory '/etc/apt/apt.conf.d/' as it has an invalid filename extension Preconfiguring packages ... Selecting previously unselected package mysql-server-core-5.7. (Reading database ... 98452 files and directories currently installed.) Preparing to unpack .../mysql-server-core-5.7_5.7.17-0ubuntu0.16.04.1_amd64.deb ... Unpacking mysql-server-core-5.7 (5.7.17-0ubuntu0.16.04.1) ... Selecting previously unselected package mysql-server-5.7. Preparing to unpack .../mysql-server-5.7_5.7.17-0ubuntu0.16.04.1_amd64.deb ... Unpacking mysql-server-5.7 (5.7.17-0ubuntu0.16.04.1) ... Selecting previously unselected package mysql-server. Preparing to unpack .../mysql-server_5.7.17-0ubuntu0.16.04.1_all.deb ... Unpacking mysql-server (5.7.17-0ubuntu0.16.04.1) ... Processing triggers for man-db (2.7.5-1) ... Processing triggers for systemd (229-4ubuntu16) ... Processing triggers for ureadahead (0.100.0-19) ... Setting up mysql-server-core-5.7 (5.7.17-0ubuntu0.16.04.1) ... Setting up mysql-server-5.7 (5.7.17-0ubuntu0.16.04.1) ... update-alternatives: using /etc/mysql/mysql.cnf to provide /etc/mysql/my.cnf (my.cnf) in auto mode Renaming removed key_buffer and myisam-recover options (if present) ERROR: Unable to start MySQL server: mysqld: Can't read dir of '/etc/mysql/mysql.conf.d/' (Errcode: 13 - Permission denied) mysqld: [ERROR] Fatal error in defaults handling. Program aborted! Please take a look at https://wiki.debian.org/Teams/MySQL/FAQ for tips on fixing common upgrade issues. Once the problem is resolved, run apt-get --fix-broken install to retry. 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 (229-4ubuntu16) ... Processing triggers for ureadahead (0.100.0-19) ... Errors were encountered while processing: mysql-server-5.7 mysql-server N: Ignoring file '50unattended-upgrades.ucf-old' in directory '/etc/apt/apt.conf.d/' as it has an invalid filename extension E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1) ============== Looking through the above the ERROR is shown as : ERROR: Unable to start MySQL server: mysqld: Can't read dir of '/etc/mysql/mysql.conf.d/' (Errcode: 13 - Permission denied) ============= Here is the directory listing of /etc/mysql immediately after the process finished: nexargi@server-02:/$ cd /etc/mysql nexargi@server-02:/etc/mysql$ ls -l total 16 drwxr-xr-x 2 mysql mysql 4096 Apr 2 11:08 conf.d -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 120 Jan 18 21:46 debian-start lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 24 Apr 2 11:08 my.cnf -> /etc/alternatives/my.cnf -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 682 Jul 11 2016 mysql.cnf drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Apr 2 11:08 mysql.conf.d ==== I'm not sure why mysqld can't read /etc/mysql/mysql.conf.d directory. However that is where I believe the error is. All advice / help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks