Comments - What to Do if MariaDB Doesn't Start

One of the first things you suggest at the top of this document is using these commands to locate the error log and data directory. Will these commands run if "MariaDB Doesn't Start"?

mysqld --help --verbose | grep 'log-error' | tail -1 mysqld --help --verbose | grep 'datadir' | tail -1

Not always, but in many cases yes.

I have upgraded clean debian 7 to debian 9 and I have installed mariadb-server-10.1.37 (amd64) in my VPS.

MariaDB doesn't start.

1. systemctl status mariadb.service

• mariadb.service - MariaDB 10.1.37 database server Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/mariadb.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled) Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Sat 2019-01-18 00:56:28 CET; 7s ago Docs: man:mysqld(8) https://mariadb.com/kb/en/library/systemd/ Process: 6183 ExecStartPre=/usr/bin/install -m 755 -o mysql -g root -d /var/run/mysqld (code=exited, status=226/NAMESPACE)

ene 18 00:56:28 xxxxx.server.info install[6183]: mariadb.service: Failed at step NAMESPACE spawning /usr/bin/install: Value too large for defined data type

I have googled but I don't find solution for this problem. What can I do to solve it ?

As Leho mentioned it may be also a case, f.e. if you update your Debian 8 installation to Debian 9. I had my datadir symlinked from /var/lib/mysql to my /home/mysql and I was getting errcode 13 Permission denied, even if mysql users had all the chmod's properly set. I had to change ProtectHome to false in /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/mariadb.service

Further to the Debian 9 issue where you get Permission Denied if your data dir is located under /home....

The correct way to override this setting is to make a local copy in /etc/systemd/system:

1: sudo cp /lib/systemd/system/mariadb.service /etc/systemd/system

2. Edit /etc/systemd/system/mariadb.service and change ProtectHome to be false (ProtectHome=false). Save the file

3. sudo systemd daemon-reload # refresh the systemd services so it sees your override file

4. sudo systemctl start mysql # and it should finally start

I spent ages searching for AppArmor and SELinux fixes to this problem, when it's just systemd preventing MySQL from writing to /home.

The more correct is to create /etc/systemd/system/mariadb.service.d/homedir.conf

[Service]
ProtectHome=false

This way the rest of the systemd file is preserved and other changes during upgrade still occurs. See MariaDB systemd documentation: https://mariadb.com/kb/en/library/systemd/. Thanks for contributing, this form of failure sure be documented here too.

Also watch out for `ProtectHome` and `ProtectSystem` systemd service definition keys, if your data dir happens to live in relevant locations for whatever reason.