Can't restart mysql

Question

I'm having trouble restarting mysql. When I enter the following command, I get this message:

# /etc/init.d/mysql restart
Rather than invoking init scripts through /etc/init.d, use the service(8)
utility, e.g. service mysql restart

Since the script you are attempting to invoke has been converted to an
Upstart job, you may also use the restart(8) utility, e.g. restart mysql

And it hangs forever.

When I try to restart mysql as a service using the following command:

# service mysql restart

It hangs forever.

I can't log into mysql as root anymore either. Any ideas on how to get this running again?

I tried the following

# service mysql start
start: Job is already running: mysql

When I do the following

# ps -ef | grep -i mysql | grep -v grep

Nothing gets returned

Answer 1

Check the MySQL logs in /var/log or possibly in /var/lib/mysql.

My bet is that the reason it "hangs" is because its doing a repair of some sort on tables that could have gotten corrupted. I've seen "mysql" take 20 minutes or longer to "start"... How long have you given it before assuming it's "hung"?

See if the logs indicate anything. Also, after starting mysql once, try running this to verify MySQL is, in fact, running:

ps aux | grep mysql

Answer 2

The best way to debug this type of thing is to directly run

sudo mysqld

That's the only way to see startup errors. (For some reason, they aren't written to any of the mysql logs). Often you can see it's failing to load a binlog or having problems getting to a certain directory.