I am new to use mariadb on linux machine. I am using Fedora 20 and I have downloaded the mariadb 10.0.15 tar.gz file and its instruction. I removed the existing mariadb from my Fedora 20. I have installed the mariadb on my machine by following the official instruction. It seems successful (without error) but I cannot start it as expected. I also have few other basic questions. Some background information here: this database will be accessed by a local application. This local application may be running under a general user account, user1. I installed it in /var/local as a root user. Questions: 1. How to uninstall it completely? I want to try again to see if I did anything wrong before. 2. Because it will be accessed by a local application and the local application will be running by a general user, user1, should I install it with user1? 3. Basically I am confused with these three users: user1, mysql and root. "user1" will be used to run the application and login the machine. "mysql" will be used to connect the mariadb. "root" will be used to install mariadb into /usr/local. Who will start the mariadb? It will be "root", I guess. But if "root" starts the service, "user1" and "mysql" don't have problem to access its resources? 4. If I don't want to install it as root, can I still install it under the /usr/local directory? 5. I renamed the my-large.cnf to .my.cnf and uncomment the InnoDB table section. Is this only change I need to make if I want to use InnoDB? should I disable the myisam? how? 6. where should I put the .my.cnf file? put into the home directory of the user who starts the mariadb or the user who logon the system if they are different? 7. there is a my.cnf file from the Fedora 20 installation, when I start mariadb without the "--defaults-file=~/.my.cnf" option, I will get the following error from the log: [ERROR] mysqld: Can't create/write to file '/var/run/mysqld/mysqld.pid' (Errcode: 2 "No such file or directory") I have to manually create the mysqld folder inside the /var/run folder each time after reboot. how to avoid this? 8. After started with that "old" my.cnf, I try to stop the mariadb but cannot because I cannot find its service name: [user1@dev2 mysql]$ ./bin/mysqladmin -u root -p status Enter password: Uptime: 685 Threads: 1 Questions: 3 Slow queries: 0 Opens: 0 Flush tables: 1 Open tables: 62 Queries per second avg: 0.004 [user1@dev2 mysql]$ sudo systemctl status mariadb.service mariadb.service Loaded: not-found (Reason: No such file or directory) Active: inactive (dead) [user1@dev2 mysql]$ sudo systemctl status mysql.service mysql.service Loaded: not-found (Reason: No such file or directory) Active: inactive (dead) [user1@dev2 mysql]$ sudo systemctl status mysqld.service mysqld.service Loaded: not-found (Reason: No such file or directory) Active: inactive (dead) how stop it? 9. if I start mariadb with the renamed my-large.cnf ([root@dev2 mysql]# ./bin/mysqld_safe --defaults-file=~/.my.cnf --user=mysql), I got the following error: 150225 0:09:28 [ERROR] Can't open the mysql.plugin table. Please run mysql_upgrade to create it. 150225 0:09:28 [Note] Recovering after a crash using mysql-bin 150225 0:09:28 [Note] Starting crash recovery... 150225 0:09:28 [Note] Crash recovery finished. 150225 0:09:28 [Warning] Failed to load slave replication state from table mysql.gtid_slave_pos: 1146: Table 'mysql.gtid_slave_pos' doesn't exist 150225 0:09:28 [ERROR] Can't open and lock privilege tables: Table 'mysql.servers' doesn't exist 150225 0:09:28 [Note] Server socket created on IP: '::'. 150225 0:09:28 [ERROR] Fatal error: Can't open and lock privilege tables: Table 'mysql.user' doesn't exist 150225 00:09:28 mysqld_safe mysqld from pid file /usr/local/mysql/data/dev2.pid ended Then I try do upgrade as suggested above: [root@dev2 mysql]# ./bin/mysql_upgrade Version check failed. Got the following error when calling the 'mysql' command line client ERROR 2002 (HY000): Can't connect to local MySQL server through socket '/tmp/mysql.sock' (2 "No such file or directory") FATAL ERROR: Upgrade failed so I think I need to make the mariadb running first, I use above 7 to make server running and then do upgrade, I got the following errors: [user1@dev2 mariadb-10.0.15-linux-x86_64]$ sudo ./bin/mysql_upgrade [sudo] password for user1: Phase 1/5: Checking mysql database Processing databases mysql mysql.column_stats OK mysql.columns_priv OK mysql.db OK mysql.event OK mysql.func OK mysql.gtid_slave_pos Error : Table 'mysql.gtid_slave_pos' doesn't exist in engine status : Operation failed mysql.help_category OK mysql.help_keyword OK mysql.help_relation OK mysql.help_topic OK mysql.host OK mysql.index_stats OK mysql.innodb_index_stats Error : Table 'mysql.innodb_index_stats' doesn't exist in engine status : Operation failed mysql.innodb_table_stats Error : Table 'mysql.innodb_table_stats' doesn't exist in engine status : Operation failed mysql.plugin OK mysql.proc OK mysql.procs_priv OK mysql.proxies_priv OK mysql.roles_mapping OK mysql.servers OK mysql.table_stats OK mysql.tables_priv OK mysql.time_zone OK mysql.time_zone_leap_second OK mysql.time_zone_name OK mysql.time_zone_transition OK mysql.time_zone_transition_type OK mysql.user OK Repairing tables mysql.gtid_slave_pos Error : Table 'mysql.gtid_slave_pos' doesn't exist in engine status : Operation failed mysql.innodb_index_stats Error : Table 'mysql.innodb_index_stats' doesn't exist in engine status : Operation failed mysql.innodb_table_stats Error : Table 'mysql.innodb_table_stats' doesn't exist in engine status : Operation failed Phase 2/5: Running 'mysql_fix_privilege_tables'... ERROR 1932 (42S02) at line 580: Table 'mysql.innodb_index_stats' doesn't exist in engine ERROR 1932 (42S02) at line 583: Table 'mysql.innodb_table_stats' doesn't exist in engine FATAL ERROR: Upgrade failed why I cannot run mariadb with the my.cnf which comes with this version of mariadb? The old my.cnf doesn't have innoDB section and I cannot enable it. Is this the reason? does the Fedora 20 support mariadb 10.0.15? Thanks, Peter