[debian-mysql] Bug#617796: mysql-server-5.1: Upgrade of debian stable silently ERASED my years old mysql database (no backup)

[Carlo Wood]

Package: mysql-server-5.1
Version: 5.1.49-3
Severity: critical
Justification: causes serious data loss

I have a head-less debian stable system that never requires attention
or maintenance.  It runs my firewall, a mail server with spam filters
and an apache webserver for a website based on php sripts that connect
to a mysql database. This website allows users to register and then
keeps track of where they are, comments, and their email address if
they wish to be informed upon updates. I had over 5000 registered
users.

A few weeks ago I decided to upgrade the server and ran,
apt-get update; apt-get dist-upgrade
That didn't go *entirely* flawless, but within an hour I had
everything updated... sorry, but I can't even remember if I
checked if the website still worked after that :/. The website
needs a manual nfs mount every reboot that I often forget too,
in the rare events that this box is ever rebooted (it's really
a "just sits there" box that I don't think about much).

Yesterday a user of the website mailed me, saying that he
hadn't been able to log into the website or use it for several
weeks and wondered if I was going to fix it.

To my surprise there wasn't a mysqld running... not even
the package was installed.  So, I installed the mysql-server-5.1
package. Website still didn't work, because I couldn't even
log in with myphpadmin. So, I reset the password for the root
user to what I normally use... and indeed myphpadmin could
now login and showed: nothing. An empty, fresly installed database.

Never - anywhere - ever - I got a single warning or question.
I searched high and low - but the old database is gone.
In /var/lib/mysql is only a new fresh install with no trace
of the old data.

I'm sure it's too late for me to recover anything, but really,
HOW THE HELL COULD THIS EVER HAPPEN???

-- System Information:
Debian Release: 6.0
  APT prefers stable
  APT policy: (500, 'stable')
Architecture: i386 (i686)

Kernel: Linux 2.6.32-5-686 (SMP w/1 CPU core)
Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash

Versions of packages mysql-server-5.1 depends on:
ii  adduser     3.112+nmu2                   add and remove users and groups
ii  debconf [de 1.5.36.1                     Debian configuration management sy
ii  libc6       2.11.2-10                    Embedded GNU C Library: Shared lib
ii  libdbi-perl 1.612-1                      Perl Database Interface (DBI)
ii  libgcc1     1:4.4.5-8                    GCC support library
ii  libmysqlcli 5.1.49-3                     MySQL database client library
ii  libstdc++6  4.4.5-8                      The GNU Standard C++ Library v3
ii  lsb-base    3.2-23.2squeeze1             Linux Standard Base 3.2 init scrip
ii  mysql-clien 5.1.49-3                     MySQL database client binaries
ii  mysql-commo 5.1.49-3                     MySQL database common files, e.g. 
ii  mysql-serve 5.1.49-3                     MySQL database server binaries
ii  passwd      1:4.1.4.2+svn3283-2+squeeze1 change and administer password and
ii  perl        5.10.1-17                    Larry Wall's Practical Extraction 
ii  psmisc      22.11-1                      utilities that use the proc file s
ii  zlib1g      1:1.2.3.4.dfsg-3             compression library - runtime

Versions of packages mysql-server-5.1 recommends:
ii  bsd-mailx [mailx]  8.1.2-0.20100314cvs-1 simple mail user agent
ii  libhtml-template-p 2.9-2                 module for using HTML Templates wi
ii  mailx              1:20071201-3          Transitional package for mailx ren

Versions of packages mysql-server-5.1 suggests:
pn  tinyca                        <none>     (no description available)

-- debconf information:
  mysql-server-5.1/postrm_remove_databases: false
  mysql-server-5.1/really_downgrade: false
  mysql-server/error_setting_password:
  mysql-server-5.1/start_on_boot: true
  mysql-server-5.1/nis_warning:
  mysql-server/password_mismatch:
  mysql-server/no_upgrade_when_using_ndb: