Debian 9 - Install MySQL Server

The steps below will show you how to install whichever version of MySQL-server you want on your Debian 9 server and why you should not just run 

sudo apt install mysql-server -y

Similar Posts

• Debian 8 - Install MySQL 5.7

Steps

Usually, to install MySQL on a distro, you would just perform the following commands:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install mysql-server -y

You would then receive either MySQL 5.5, 5.6, or 5.7 depending on which distro you were using, but they were all versions of MySQL. However, with Debian 9, if you do this you will end up installing MariaDB 10.1 which is a drop in replacement for 5.6.

If you decide to just go with MariaDB 10.1 and are confused by the lack of a prompt to set the root password, just login with 

sudo mysql

GRANT ALL ON *.* TO root@localhost identified by 'myawesomepassword';

Install MySQL 5.6, 5.7, or 5.8-preview

If you really want MySQL instead of MariaDB for whatever reason, you can execute the script below to install the version you want.

#!/bin/bash
cd /tmp
wget https://dev.mysql.com/get/mysql-apt-config_0.8.7-1_all.deb
sudo dpkg -i mysql-apt-config_*.deb

At the popup-page, select the version you want.

Then use the following commands to install the MySQL server (it will install the version you selected).

sudo apt update
sudo apt install mysql-community-server -y

References

• Programster's Blog - Debian 8 - Install MySQL 5.6
• MySQL.com - Download MySQL APT Repository