Update MySQL version from 5.1 to 5.5 in CentOS 6.2

Question

I tried to update MySQL from 5.1 to 5.5 in CentOS 6.2. The following is the process I did:

1. rpm -Uvh http://repo.webtatic.com/yum/centos/5/latest.rpm
2. yu         


        

Answer 1

2015/08/19 - For those of you working on older (but still decent) hardware with a matching OS (typically 32 bit machines).

-- This will upgrade to mysql 5.6 community not 5.5 --

This worked for me after some research and mixing/matching/testing the answers found on various page of the internet (mainly from this page and http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.6/en/linux-installation-yum-repo.html). My OS shipped with mysql 5.1, I wanted to have 5.6.

My system

[root@host]# cat /etc/*release 
CentOS release 6.7 (Final)
[root@host]# uname -a
Linux host 2.6.32-573.3.1.el6.i686 #1 SMP Thu Aug 13 19:58:36 UTC 2015 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux
[root@host]# arch
i686

This is installed on a 2006 mac pro 1.1 (CPUs upgraded to 3.0GHz Intel Xeon X5365 Quad-Core).

Commands I ran

This was done almost immediately after a fresh install of the OS and system update via yum

list mysql currently installed

yum list installed | grep -i mysql

remove installed msql

yum remove mysql mysql-*

list mysql currently installed

yum list installed | grep -i mysql

Download rpm containing mysql 5.6

wget http://dev.mysql.com/get/mysql-community-release-el6-5.noarch.rpm

Install mysql

rpm -Uvh mysql-community-release-el6-5.noarch.rpm
yum install mysql mysql-server

list mysql currently installed

yum list installed | grep -i mysql

ensure mysql starts on reboot

chkconfig --list mysqld
sudo chkconfig mysqld on
chkconfig --list mysqld

Start mysql

service mysqld start
service mysqld status

Result

[root@host]# yum list installed | grep -i mysql
compat-mysql51.i686     5.1.54-1.el6.remi @remi                                 
mysql-community-client.i686
                        5.6.26-2.el6      @mysql56-community                    
mysql-community-common.i686
                        5.6.26-2.el6      @mysql56-community                    
mysql-community-libs.i686
                        5.6.26-2.el6      @mysql56-community                    
mysql-community-release.noarch
mysql-community-server.i686
                        5.6.26-2.el6      @mysql56-community                    
perl-DBD-MySQL.i686     4.013-3.el6       @base


[root@host]# mysql --version
mysql  Ver 14.14 Distrib 5.6.26, for Linux (i686) using  EditLine wrapper

mysql config (I did not touch this yet but the info seems legit)

Some interesting basic but efficient performance tuning for mysql:

https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-install-mysql-5-6-from-official-yum-repositories

Good luck!

Edit

I had some issues creating users and granting permissions, this how it was fixed.

Error

ERROR 1054 (42S22) at line 1: Unknown column 'plugin' in 'mysql.user'

Fix

1. Logged on the server as root
2. Connected to mysql with a simple mysql
3. Checked the outcome of this statement: SELECT COUNT(1) column_count FROM information_schema.columns WHERE table_schema='mysql' AND table_name='user'; The result was 39, 43 is expected for mysql 5.6
4. Issued this statement to update the root password: update mysql.user set Password=PASSWORD('root') where User='root';
5. (Logged off mysql with exit)
6. Restarted mysql with: service mysqld restart
7. Ran: mysql_upgrade -uroot -proot --force
8. Reconnected to mysql with mysql -uroot -proot
9. Checked the outcome of this statement: SELECT COUNT(1) column_count FROM information_schema.columns WHERE table_schema='mysql' AND table_name='user'; The result was 43 as expected for mysql 5.6. I was then able to create my users and grant permissions as needed.