MySQL 5.5.20

February 8, 2012 · Guillaume Plessis

The packages of MySQL 5.5.20 are now available for Debian 6.0 “Squeeze” on both amd64 and i386 architectures, with the following changes :

the mysql-common package should now work with MySQL 5.1 packages without any problem (unknown configuration variables in /etc/mysql/my.cnf have been commented out)
mysql-server-5.5 now supports Linux native asynchronous IO

As usual, please read the full Changelog carefully before upgrading.

packetwar February 9, 2012
Wooo! Finally! Last night, I tried the “official” Oracle .deb that they released and it was a disaster. Immediately went back to using the dotdeb package(s). Glad to see the latest build on the repo. Installed without a hitch.
Was Linux native asynchronous IO just not built into the 5.5.19 package? I do believe that’s been a feature of MySQL 5.5.x for some time now.
Lico Marques February 9, 2012
When trying to upgrade, i received a message:
“The following packages have been kept back: mysql-server-5.5 mysql-server-core-5.5”
Why?
- tilo June 5, 2013
  install missing: libterm-readkey-perl (ubuntu 12.04.1 / 12.04.2 stuff, same 5.5 version tho.)
  - Guillaume Plessis June 5, 2013
    @tilo : Dotdeb is built for Debian, not for Ubuntu. If you have dependency issues, try to add Debian-related lines in your sources.list. Or use http://packages.tooptee.org/
Lico Marques February 9, 2012
Tried with aptitude and it worked! Thank you :)
ru_maniac February 9, 2012
Having same issue. Is it safe to force-install these packages, or I’m risking to break dependencies?
Guillaume Plessis February 9, 2012
@ru_maniac : just run “apt-get install mysql-server-5.5”
ru_maniac February 9, 2012
Thank you.
David Dreezer February 10, 2012
I’ve been installing the packages via F.A.I. with the debconf that I’ll paste below. This had been working for 5.0, 5.1 and even 5.5, but stopped working with .20. Was there a recent change in the syntax?
mysql-server-5.5 mysql-server-5.5/root_password password myfakerootpassword mysql-server-5.5 mysql-server-5.5/root_password_again password myfakerootpassword mysql-server-5.5 mysql-server-5.5/root_password seen true mysql-server-5.5 mysql-server-5.5/root_password_again seen true
- Guillaume Plessis February 10, 2012
  @David Dreezer : mysql-server-5.5/* keys have been renamed to mysql-server/*
  https://github.com/gplessis/dotdeb-mysql-5.5/blob/master/debian/mysql-server-5.5.config
Parsec February 10, 2012
Upgrade from MqSQL 5.5.19 to 5.5.20 took me 30seconds and there was no problem.
Thanx again!
David Dreezer February 10, 2012
Thank you, Guillaume.
thomas February 13, 2012
Linux native asynchronous IO for use this i must enable it?
- Guillaume Plessis February 13, 2012
  @thomas : the Linux native AIO support will be enabled in MySQL if your Linux kernel supports it as well. You can check it in your MySQL client :
  mysql> show variables like ‘innodb_use_native_aio’; +———————–+——-+ | Variable_name | Value | +———————–+——-+ | innodb_use_native_aio | ON | +———————–+——-+ 1 row in set (0.00 sec)
thomas February 13, 2012
@Guillaume Plessis thank you, checked and it is enabled
Len February 14, 2012
I ran apt-get install mysql-server-5.5 on my INTEL XENON and got the AMD 64 bit version. Any way to specify intel?
- Guillaume Plessis February 14, 2012
  @Len : amd64 is a generic (and historic) name for 64bits-capable x86_64 processor, such as your Intel Xeon. Your mysql-server-5.5 installation ran fine.
Stefan February 17, 2012
Hi all Could you make a package for Debian lenny? Thanks a lot for your great work! St
Guillaume Plessis February 17, 2012
@Stefan : No more packages for Lenny, sorry. Please upgrade to Squeeze or look at Percona/MariaDB
Stefan February 17, 2012
Whats your experience with mysql 5.5? Whats about the preformance between mysql 5.1 and 5.5? Thanks
Stefan February 17, 2012
@Gullaume Thanks for your fast answer. I must waiting for upgrading to squeeze, because not all webpages are php 5.3 compatible… :-(
Guillaume Plessis February 18, 2012
@Stefan : first of all, you can “freeze” your PHP 5.2 packages to use them on Squeeze.
About MySQL 5.1 and 5.5 comparison, all that you should know is that upgrading is not enough to have better performance. A well-configured MySQL 5.1 server will be better than a MySQL 5.5 server that keeps its default configuration (regardless of the hosted application).
You can keep your MySQL 5.1 server, but you also have to take care of its usage/configuration :
- use the appropriate storage engines (InnoDB is good)
- be sure to optimize your schema and queries (using slow query log, percona toolkit, EXPLAIN and profiling)
- don’t use a too large query cache (its single mutex design can lower the performance)
- adjust your configuration to have less memory allocated to each connection
- allocate the fred memory to the InnoDB buffer pool (in case you use as main storage engine).
- validate your changes with mysqltuner.pl
- monitor your server metrics with Cacti, Monyog or equivalent tools.
- …
MySQL 5.5 brings a lot of improvements and tools, but you can still use a fine tuned MySQL 5.1 server without any performance issue.
acidofil February 22, 2012
DO !!!NOT!!! install this version!! I came across a very painful bug right after the upgrade. Dotdeb please, I beg you to revert to previous version.
http://bugs.mysql.com/bug.php?id=61598
fixing the issue by setting right owner solves literally nothing - mysql f#cks everything up again with next run of repair/optimize..
- Guillaume Plessis February 22, 2012
  @acidofil : what an alarming (and also misleading) comment… Changing /var/lib/mysql/* files owner is a very special use case that most users won’t encounter. Did you try the myisamcheck trick?
acidofil February 22, 2012
please explain why it’s misleading? I did NOT change /var/lib/mysql/* owner/permissions! The problem occurred without doing anything except the upgrade process.
Indeed I did try “myisamchk -ofv table”, it helps(so does changing the owner manually btw).. BUT right after the repair mysql changes owner again to the wrong one so running one more optimize/repair gets you right to the start again..
acidofil February 22, 2012
- problem occurred with first run of “optimize” command.. to be exact ;]
Guillaume Plessis February 22, 2012
@acidofil : that’s strange. The upgrade process went fine many times here.
- which distribution are you using? Debian Squeeze. Any Ubuntu?
- which user is your MySQL server running?
- which MySQL version did you upgrade from? From which repository?
- which MySQL exact version did you upgrade to?
- are you running a i386 or amd64 server?
- what are the permissions on your crashed tables? (ls -la)
- any message or warning during the upgrade process or in your /var/log/syslog?
- …
I tried to reproduce the bug by upgrading a stock Debian Lenny (amd64) from MySQL 5.1.58 (from Dotdeb) to MySQL 5.5.20 (from Dotdeb too). All the files and directories in /var/lib/mysql/ were belonging to mysql:mysql during the whole process. No issue.
acidofil February 22, 2012
- squeeze, 2.6.32-5-amd64
- mysql
- it was previous version from dotdeb, have no idea which was it tho :(
- ^^ amd64
- “-rw-rw—- 1 mysql mysql” is correct one “-rw-rw—- 1 mysql ssh” is wrong one which mysql sets right after running repair/optimize.
- no, everything went 100% fine during upgrade, even myisam-recover. The problem occurs with first run of optimize/repair on any table from any database on upgraded version..
Have you tried running optimize/repair on any of the old tables after the upgrade?
I’ve noticed it actually works fine on any NEWLY created tables, but on tables from before-upgrade it crashes the data and throws “Can’t change ownership of the file ‘/var/lib/mysql/xxx/xxx.MYD” and changes the ownership.. Guess i’ll just do dump of all databases and put it back via mysql .file …
anyway, thanx for interest, and mostly for dotdeb! ]
Guillaume Plessis February 22, 2012
I just tried : no problem with optimize/repair on any of the old tables after the upgrade. No permissions change.
acidofil February 22, 2012
weirrd :( Anyway.. I found out that changing tables engine from MYISAM to INNODB and back to MYISAM solves this issue.. so if someone else is having this problem, this is the way!
huluwa March 9, 2012
mysql Ver 14.14 Distrib 5.5.20, for debian-linux-gnu (x86_64) using readline 6.1
Server version: 5.5.20-1~dotdeb.0 (Debian)
Root’s password can’t be configured, user debian-sys-maint can’t be created.
huluwa March 9, 2012
pic: http://www.cloudshark.org/captures/5849a0ebe672/download
- Guillaume Plessis March 9, 2012
  @huluwa : thanks for this multiple-comments report. I’ll try to reproduce the bug, but the lack of info will not help. Which distribution are you using? What is your sources.list? amd64 or i386? In short terms, describe your environment. Anything more precise in your log files (especially syslog and dpkg.log?)
huluwa March 9, 2012
dpkg: error processing mysql-server (–configure): dependency problems - leaving unconfigured configured to not write apport reports Errors were encountered while processing: mysql-server-5.5 mysql-server E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
huluwa March 9, 2012
@Guillaume Thanks for your reply. Here are some details.
Debian 6.0 i386 sources.list
deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian squeeze main contrib non-free deb http://security.us.debian.org squeeze/updates main contrib non-free deb http://packages.dotdeb.org stable all deb-src http://packages.dotdeb.org stable all
On my virtual machine & some VPSes, like buyvm, cinfu. When I use apt-get install mysql, the error will be reproduced.
Log: http://filerio.com/8tihrs1t367f
colamensch March 16, 2012
Hi,
no intsallproblems on Vserver @ Debian 6.0
root@lola:~# mysql -V mysql Ver 14.14 Distrib 5.5.20, for debian-linux-gnu (x86_64) using readline 6.1
root@lola:~# uname -r 2.6.32-4-pve
huluwa March 17, 2012
yes, it’s ok now.
jagged software January 2, 2013
If you get this message: The following packages have been kept back: mysql-client-5.5 mysql-server-5.5
the solution is
apt-get dist-upgrade

Debian 6.0 i386 sources.list