mysql.service failed because the control process exited with error code.
These are the steps I took to correct this: Back up your my.cnf file in /etc/mysql and remove or rename it sudo mv /etc/mysql/my.cnf /etc/mysql/my.cnf.bak Remove the folder /etc/mysql/mysql.conf.d/ using sudo rm -r /etc/mysql/mysql.conf.d/ Verify you don't have a my.cnf file stashed somewhere else (I did in my home dir!) or in /etc/alternatives/my.cnf use sudo find / -name my.cnf Now reinstall every thing sudo apt purge mysql-server mysql-server-5.7 mysql-server-core-5.7 sudo apt install mysql-server In case your syslog shows an error like "mysqld: Can't read dir of '/etc/mysql/conf.d/'" create a symbolic link: sudo ln -s /etc/mysql/mysql.conf.d /etc/mysql/conf.d Then the service should be able to start with sudo service mysql start. Credits
