Drop-in of MariaDB triggers removal of needed packages depending mysql-common

Question

In Ubuntu (Actually Kubuntu) 15.10 (Wily) attempting to install MariaDB 10.1 all instructions say to first remove mysql-client and mysql-common packages via sudo apt-get remove mysql-server mysql-client mysql-common and passing the -s flag (sudo apt-get -s remove mysql-server mysql-client mysql-common) shows that to remove mysql-common will also result in several other packages being removed that one would not want gone...

The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required: libarmadillo5 libctemplate2v5 libdap17v5 libdapclient6v5 libdbi-perl libepsilon1 libfreexl1 libgeos-3.5.0 libgeos-c1v5 libhdf4-0-alt libkmlbase1 libkmldom1 libkmlengine1 liblwgeom-2.1.8 libminizip1 libnetcdf7 libodbc1 libogdi3.2 libopenjp2-7 libpq5 libproj9 libspatialite7 libsuperlu4 libterm-readkey-perl liburiparser1 libvsqlitepp3v5 mysql-utilities mysql-workbench-data odbcinst odbcinst1debian2 proj-bin proj-data python-ecdsa python-mysql.connector python-paramiko python-pexpect python-pyodbc Use 'apt-get autoremove' to remove them.

The following packages will be REMOVED: accountwizard* akonadi-backend-mysql* akonadi-server* akregator* amarok* amarok-utils* kaddressbook* kdepim-runtime* kmail* knotes* kontact* korganizer* libdbd-mysql-perl* libgdal1i* libmysqlclient18* libmysqlcppconn7v5* libqt4-sql-mysql* libqt5sql5-mysql* mysql-client* mysql-client-5.6* mysql-common* mysql-workbench*

So as you can see, things like kaddressbook, knotes, mysql-workbench, etc. I don't know if I should just leave mysql-common and install mariadb-common alongside it or if there are any other options to perform the drop-in replacement without removing all that depends on mysql-common.

edit: I did apt-cache policy mysql-common which showed:

mysql-common:
  Installed: 5.6.28-0ubuntu0.15.10.1
  Candidate: 10.1.13+maria-1~wily
  Version table:
     10.1.13+maria-1~wily 0
        500 http://mirror.jmu.edu/pub/mariadb/repo/10.1/ubuntu/ wily/main amd64 Packages
 *** 5.6.28-0ubuntu0.15.10.1 0
        500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ wily-updates/main amd64 Packages
        500 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ wily-security/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     5.6.25-0ubuntu1 0
        500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ wily/main amd64 Packages

So then I tried sudo apt-get update which I hoped would replace mysql-common with mariadb-common but it didn't.

xendi xendi · Accepted Answer · 2016-03-31T19:15:50

The answer is to remove mysql-client and mysql-server (If installed), leaving mysql-common and then doing apt-get update and apt-get upgrade so long as apt-cache policy mysql-common shows an upgrade to mariadb-common. After that you can install mariadb-server as usual with no unintended consequences.

Drop-in of MariaDB triggers removal of needed packages depending mysql-common

1 Answers