[debian-mysql] Bug#1009290: mariadb-server-10.6: Fails to start on live system

[Denys Nykula]

Hello. The apt install of mariadb-server-10.6 fails for me too,
with the same line "Could not execute systemctl" but different
journal messages. I removed the existing setup in /etc and /var,
purged dependencies, but install still fails. How do I debug?

systemd[1]: Starting MariaDB 10.6.7 database server...
[Note] /usr/sbin/mariadbd (server 10.6.7-MariaDB-3+b1) starting as process 98614 ...
[Note] InnoDB: The first data file './ibdata1' did not exist. A new tablespace will be created!
[Note] InnoDB: Compressed tables use zlib 1.2.11
[Note] InnoDB: Number of pools: 1
[Note] InnoDB: Using crc32 + pclmulqdq instructions
[Note] InnoDB: Using liburing
[Note] InnoDB: Initializing buffer pool, total size = 134217728, chunk size = 134217728
[Note] InnoDB: Completed initialization of buffer pool
[Note] InnoDB: Setting file './ibdata1' size to 12 MB. Physically writing the file full; Please wait ... 
[Note] InnoDB: File './ibdata1' size is now 12 MB.
[Note] InnoDB: Setting log file ./ib_logfile101 size to 100663296 bytes
[Note] InnoDB: Renaming log file ./ib_logfile101 to ./ib_logfile0
[Note] InnoDB: New log file created, LSN=10329
[Note] InnoDB: Doublewrite buffer not found: creating new
[Note] InnoDB: Doublewrite buffer created
[Note] InnoDB: 128 rollback segments are active.
[Note] InnoDB: Creating shared tablespace for temporary tables 
[Note] InnoDB: Setting file './ibtmp1' size to 12 MB. Physically writing the file full; Please wait ... 
[Note] InnoDB: File './ibtmp1' size is now 12 MB.
[Note] InnoDB: 10.6.7 started; log sequence number 0; transaction id 3
[Note] Plugin 'FEEDBACK' is disabled.
[ERROR] Could not open mysql.plugin table: "Table 'mysql.plugin' doesn't exist". Some plugins may be not loaded 
[Warning] You need to use --log-bin to make --expire-logs-days or --binlog-expire-logs-seconds work.
[ERROR] Can't open and lock privilege tables: Table 'mysql.servers' doesn't exist
[Note] Server socket created on IP: '127.0.0.1'.
[ERROR] Fatal error: Can't open and lock privilege tables: Table 'mysql.db' doesn't exist 
[ERROR] Aborting 
Warning: Memory not freed: 280
systemd[1]: mariadb.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
systemd[1]: mariadb.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
systemd[1]: Failed to start MariaDB 10.6.7 database server.