/var/lib/dpkg/info/mysql-server-5.0.postinst: line 143: /etc/mysql/conf.d/old_passwords.cnf

(http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-891109.html)
Update: So I looked at line 143 of /var/lib/dpkg/info/mysql-server-5.0.postinst and discovered it's trying to create the /etc/mysql/conf.d/old_passwords.cnf file. When I check, there's no /etc/mysql/conf.d directory, so I create it.

The next time I run "sudo dpkg --configure -a", it can't read the /var/lib/mysql/mysql/user.frm file. When I check it, the /var/lib/mysql/mysql/ directory is owned by root:root. So I chown it do mysql:mysql.

The next time I run "sudo dpkg --configure -a", everything looks good. Configuration finishes with no problem. Then it tries to start the mysql daemon, and it throws an error, saying that it can't read the /etc/mysql/my.cnf file. Thinking that it must be another permissions problem, I look in the /etc/mysql directory, and... no my.cnf file. I look in /etc for it, but no joy. I do a system-wide find, and still nothing. I change the permissions for the /etc/mysql directory and try reinstalling the mysql-server-5.0 package in an attempt to get it to write the my.cnf file, but still nothing.

I've looked online to find a copy of the my.cnf file for MySQL 5.0, to see if I could drop it in, but so far I haven't found it anywhere. As I absolutely must get MySQL running on this machine, I guess I'm going to reinstall. Again.





... *sigh* ...
Hi, open a terminal and try moving/var/lib/mysql folder out of the way
sudo mv /var/lib/mysql /var/lib/mysql.old
then
sudo aptitude install mysql-server-5.0

mv /var/lib/mysql /var/lib/mysql.old
aptitude install mysql-server-5.0
after installation there was problem /var/lib/dpkg/info/mysql-server-5.0.postinst: line 144: /etc/mysql/conf.d/old_passwords.cnf: No such file or directory

solution (http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-891109.html) look up

mkdir /etc/mysql/conf.d
chown -R mysql:mysql /var/lib/mysql/*
dpkg --configure -a

now mysql works, thx