I keep hearing good things about MySQL 5.6, so I decided to give it a try, even Ubuntu 12.04 LTS do not have launchpad repo for it. (atleast, as of July 10, 2013)

Download & Install MySQL 5.6 deb package from official site

You can get MySQL installers from https://dev.mysql.com/downloads/mysql/#downloads

I ran following command to get MySQL 5.6.14


			wget -O mysql-5.6.deb http://cdn.mysql.com/Downloads/MySQL-5.6/mysql-5.6.14-debian6.0-x86_64.deb

Then install Mysql 5.6.x


			dpkg -i  mysql-5.6.deb

and install dependency


			apt-get install libaio1

Backup MySQL 5.5 Data

You will need this only if you are upgrading…


			cd ~ 
mkdir backup && cd backup
mysqldump -A --events > dump/alldb.sql

cp -pr /etc/mysql config

service mysql stop
cp -pr /var/lib/mysql/ data

At this point your mysql is stopped and you have mysql’s data directory and mysqldump output in ~/backup directory. If all goes well you will not need backups!

Remove MySQL 5.5 Packages


			apt-get remove mysql-common mysql-server-5.5 mysql-server-core-5.5 mysql-client-5.5 mysql-client-core-5.5
apt-get autoremove

Setup MySQL 5.6 Startup Script


			cp /opt/mysql/server-5.6/support-files/mysql.server /etc/init.d/mysql.server
update-rc.d -f mysql remove
update-rc.d mysql.server defaults

Note: I am not sure why but renaming mysql 5.6’s startup script from mysql.server to mysql was throwing error.

Update Config & Environment settings

Update environment

MySQL 5.6 directory layout is different than Lauchpad packages.


			vim /etc/environment
PATH="/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games:/opt/mysql/server-5.6/bin"
source /etc/environment

Confirm changes

Running… which mysql

Should show… /opt/mysql/server-5.6/bin/mysql

Update mysql config file


			vim /etc/mysql/my.cnf


			basedir = /opt/mysql/server-5.6
lc-messages-dir = /opt/mysql/server-5.6/share

You may also need to tweak few other settings.

For example:table_cache has been renamed to table_open_cache

Start MySQL 5.6

Its time to start new mysql…


			service mysql.server start

If you are facing any issue during startup, refer to mysql error log.

Final Step

If you are upgrading from mysql, run command mysql_upgrade

Otherwise if its a fresh install, run following:


			/opt/mysql/server-5.6/scripts/mysql_install_db --user=mysql --datadir=/var/lib/mysql

That’s it! Enjoy MySQL 5.6.

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Comments

Rob

August 13, 2013

I run the MySQL upgrade and receive the below error. Have you encountered this before? Other than this everything went smoothly so thank you very much for this tutorial!

Looking for ‘mysql’ as: mysql
Looking for ‘mysqlcheck’ as: mysqlcheck
FATAL ERROR: Upgrade failed
1. Rahul Bansal
  
  October 14, 2013
  
  Try solution given in External link to rtcamp.comhttp://rtcamp.com/tutorials/mysql/mysql-5-6-ubuntu-12-04/#comment-64615
himanshu

September 1, 2013

Very helpful.. Thanks
fabrizio

September 6, 2013

Same problem of Rob here: during “mysql_upgrade” it says:

Looking for ‘mysql’ as: mysql
Looking for ‘mysqlcheck’ as: mysqlcheck
FATAL ERROR: Upgrade failed

Thanks
1. fabrizio
  
  September 6, 2013
  
  Fixed: you need to use
  
  mysql_upgrade -u root -p
  
  That’s it
  1. Rahul Bansal
    
    September 6, 2013
    
    Thanks for sharing your solution. 🙂
    
    Though error was odd in context of solution…
    1. igid26
      
      January 11, 2014
      
      Everything runs fine for me until the upgrade. I was using 5.5.34 and upgraded to 5.6, but when I try mysql_upgrade -u root -p, it gives me:
      
      Looking for ‘mysql’ as: mysql
      Looking for ‘mysqlcheck’ as: mysqlcheck
      FATAL ERROR: Upgrade failed
      1. Rahul Bansal
        
        January 12, 2014
        
        Check mysql error log. There must be something in it indicating reason for issue.
  2. Jose
    
    March 13, 2014
    
    mysql_upgrade -u root -p
    
    Produced…
    
    “Could not create the upgrade info file ‘/var/lib/mysql/mysql_upgrade_info’ in the MySQL Servers datadir, errno: 13”
    
    I’ve tried a number of things with the same result: Ran as “sudo”, chmod’ed ‘/var/lib/mysql/mysql_upgrade_info’ to 777.
    
    There is currently only one line in the file: “5.5.35”.
    
    Any suggestions? Does this matter if everything else went fine?
kugaevsky

September 19, 2013

You didn’t mention that user should run

/opt/mysql/server-5.6/scripts/mysql_install_db

if he installing MySQL on clean system. I think it’s important for new linux users.
1. Rahul Bansal
  
  September 23, 2013
  
  I already have that command towards end of article:
```
/opt/mysql/server-5.6/scripts/mysql_install_db --user=mysql --datadir=/var/lib/mysql
```
Luther

September 26, 2013

Thanks for the brilliant howto!
Navneet

September 30, 2013

I am getting following error:

sh: 1: /opt/mysql/server-5.6/bin/my_print_defaults: not found
Installing MySQL system tables…sh: 1: /opt/mysql/server-5.6/bin/mysqld: not found
1. Rahul Bansal
  
  October 14, 2013
  
  Strange error. Never seen it.
  
  If its a fresh server, better reinstall mysql. Looks like packages are not installed properly.
John

October 10, 2013

When I try to start mysql I get this in the error log:

131009 16:25:00 mysqld_safe Starting mysqld daemon with databases from /var/lib/mysql
/opt/mysql/server-5.6/bin/mysqld: error while loading shared libraries: libaio.so.1: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
131009 16:25:00 mysqld_safe mysqld from pid file /var/run/mysqld/mysqld.pid ended

I have tried reinstalling libaio1 and also removing+installing it. No change. Any advice? Thanks!
1. Rahul Bansal
  
  October 14, 2013
  
  Are you using 32-bit?
  
  This might be related – External link to stackoverflow.comhttp://stackoverflow.com/questions/10619298/libaio-so-1-cannot-open-shared-object-file
  
  We shifted to percona-mysql recently so I am sorry but I won’t be able to reproduce this issue. Percona packages are very easy to install and maintain.
  1. John
    
    October 14, 2013
    
    Nice call! The libaio.so.1 file is 64 bit but the mysqld is 32! I must have grabbed the wrong mysql file!
    
    I’ll remove mysql and start over using a 64 bit version. THANK YOU SO MUCH!
    1. John
      
      October 14, 2013
      
      Final comment: Yes, that fixed it! Woo hoo!
      1. Rahul Bansal
        
        October 15, 2013
        
        Glad to know that your issue is resolved. 🙂
Paul de Raaij

October 31, 2013

If your mysql server isn’t starting, problem probably is that it can’t find a system message file. Check for it in the error log and execute the following:

cp /opt/mysql/server-5.6/share/english/errmsg.sys /usr/share/mysql/errmsg.sys

The server will start now
tiago

November 2, 2013

Starting service mysql on ubuntu with command service mysql.server start and the console say: The server quit without update PID file (/var/run/mysqld/mysqld.pid). Also mysql -u root: can’t could connect to socket at /var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock. Help me!
1. Rahul Bansal
  
  November 5, 2013
  
  Check mysql error log for details.
  
  Most likely you will find answer there.
2. André Mácola
  
  March 4, 2014
  
  I resolve this problem by checking the my.cnf file. I had a duplicated lc-messages-dir line.
  1. Rahul Bansal
    
    March 7, 2014
    
    Glad to know that your issue got solved. 🙂
Just me

November 4, 2013

It’s been a bit since this tutorial was posted. Here are some issues
I bumped into. The wget will produce a 404. So, you’ll have to go to that
site directly. Set up an account. Then you’ll get access to that link where
you can download mysql manually. Then just change the name to “mysql-5.6.deb”
and start the tutorial on the second step. For those who might not know,
if you’re not running as root, you’ll
need to precede these commands with ‘sudo ‘.

sudo dpkg -i mysql-5.6.deb
1. josete
  
  November 5, 2013
  
  Well, the wget works as long as you type in the whole string, including that strange
  /from/http://cdn.mysql.com/
  
  at the end. That will surpass Sun login screen.
Frank

November 27, 2013

Excellent, saved me a lot of time to find it out myself, thanks a lot!

Cheers, Frank
Koos Kombuis

November 27, 2013

I get

user@somewhere:~# wget -O mysql-5.6.deb External link to dev.mysql.comhttps://dev.mysql.com/get/Downloads/MySQL-5.6/mysql-5.6.12-debian6.0-x86_64.deb/from/http://cdn.mysql.com/
–2013-11-27 18:31:14– External link to dev.mysql.comhttps://dev.mysql.com/get/Downloads/MySQL-5.6/mysql-5.6.12-debian6.0-x86_64.deb/from/http://cdn.mysql.com/
Resolving dev.mysql.com (dev.mysql.com)… 137.254.60.11
Connecting to dev.mysql.com (dev.mysql.com)|137.254.60.11|:443… connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response… 404 Not Found
2013-11-27 18:31:17 ERROR 404: Not Found.
1. Koos Kombuis
  
  November 27, 2013
  
  wget -O mysql-5.6.deb External link to cdn.mysql.comhttp://cdn.mysql.com/Downloads/MySQL-5.6/mysql-5.6.14-debian6.0-x86_64.deb
  1. Rahul Bansal
    
    November 28, 2013
    
    Thanks for update.
    
    Looks like they removed old download link. It was latest though when I wrote this article!
    
    I have updated article with latest link now. Thanks again. 🙂
Digo Freitas

January 8, 2014

Thanks for the tips! I had a little problem with the “table_cache”, but I found it on syslog and it worked like magic, all database still intact.
Mario

January 25, 2014

Hey Rahul Bansal,

That worked just fine to me, thanks! I’m trying to work in some instructions for do the rollback for 5.5 after upgrade using your instructions. But there is a issue related to start mysql service. Did you have this problem? Do you know how to fix it?

Thanks
1. Rahul Bansal
  
  January 27, 2014
  
  Sorry couldn’t understood your problem. Do you having problem during rollback or upgrade?
Mário Areias

January 27, 2014

Well, I couldn’t find my last comment here. My problemas is related to do a downgrade, after upgrade. The upgrade went fine. Then I removed the /opt/mysql folder. Also, I changed the MySQL.cnf file to the old condiguration. But when I try to install mysql-server-5.5 again, it fails because the mysql service doesn’t start. Is there anything missing here?
1. Rahul Bansal
  
  January 27, 2014
  
  Sorry. Never needed to downgrade back. So really do not have any idea.
  1. Mário
    
    January 27, 2014
    
    Sure. Don’t worry. But do you know why the mysql service doesn’t start?
    1. Rahul Bansal
      
      January 28, 2014
      
      Please check mysql error log. Most likely tail -f /var/log/mysql/mysql-error.log
Stephen Poland

January 28, 2014

Good tutorial, I don’t know if I’m missing something though, I’ve no my.cnf file in /etc – the /etc/mysql directory doesn’t exist. Should I create it and add the two lines?

sudo find / -iname my.cnf /opt/mysql/server-5.6/mysql-test/suite/ndb_rpl/my.cnf /opt/mysql/server-5.6/mysql-test/suite/rpl_ndb/my.cnf /opt/mysql/server-5.6/mysql-test/suite/ndb_binlog/my.cnf /opt/mysql/server-5.6/mysql-test/suite/federated/my.cnf /opt/mysql/server-5.6/mysql-test/suite/ndb_team/my.cnf /opt/mysql/server-5.6/mysql-test/suite/rpl/extension/bhs/my.cnf /opt/mysql/server-5.6/mysql-test/suite/rpl/my.cnf /opt/mysql/server-5.6/mysql-test/suite/ndb/my.cnf /opt/mysql/server-5.6/mysql-test/suite/ndb_big/my.cnf
1. Rahul Bansal
  
  January 28, 2014
  
  You can create my.cnf and add lines to it. Looks like you are installing afresh.
  
  Try it. If it doesn’t work, just let us know.
Ganesan

February 13, 2014

while executing this command, I am getting the following issue/

apt-get install libaio1

Reading package lists…. Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information…. Done
package libaio1 is not available, but is referred to by another package.
This may meant hat the package is missing, has been obsoleted, or
is only available from another source
E: Package ‘libaio1’ has no installation candidate.
1. Rahul Bansal
  
  February 14, 2014
  
  Search for missing package using command apt-cache search libaio1. May be it’s present in another package. Alternatively, try continuing without that.
  
  I am sorry but I won’t be able to dig deeper as we have switched to percona-mysql.
Michael

February 22, 2014

I had to put the mysql-path at the beginngin of PATH to make which mysql point to opt instead of usr
Ethan Eldridge

February 27, 2014

If you get an error like
```
Starting MySQL
 * Couldn't find MySQL server (/opt/mysql/server-5.6/bin/mysql/bin/mysqld_safe)
```
Then there’s a good chance you didn’t set the basedir correctly. Hope that helps someone! (I managed to miss that step and was confused for a bit)
1. Rahul Bansal
  
  February 28, 2014
  
  Thanks for sharing your experience. It might help others. 🙂
Vishal Varshney

March 6, 2014

after this installation my php5 is not working and phpmyadmin and mysql-workbench removes
1. Rahul Bansal
  
  March 7, 2014
  
  Sorry to say but I could not understand your problem. Please create a support request, with mysql error log content, in out forum – External link to rtcamp.comhttps://rtcamp.com/support/forum/wordpress-nginx/