Comment 7 for bug 484120

Ok, the problem here is a bit deeper, and different from what I first thought.

The above error message about multiple columns is also there when upgrading the stock MySQL 5.0 to stock MySQL 5.1 in Ubuntu Jaunty. As is the syntax error.

Seems that these ADD COLUMN statements are just some old cruft that never worked, nor were needed?!?

The actual upgrade of the system tables to 5.1 format is done when the /etc/init.d/mysql start script calls mysql_upgrade during startup (mysql_upgrade is the 5.1 replacement for mysql_fix_privilege_tables). This happens on every start of the mysql server.

I just tested an upgrade from mysql 5.0 to mariadb 5.1.39 on Ubuntu Hardy. There was some issue with a stuck mysqld_safe which I want to investigate further, but after second restart of mysql I checked and mysql.user / mysql.db were ok and correctly upgraded by mysql_upgrade by the startup script.

I suspect that the reason I saw a problem was due to other issues with my install and/or waiting for mysqlcheck to finish before the upgrade is actually done. At least also my original install seems ok now.

Will double check and then if no further problems I will just remove the useless, non-functional SQL from the postinst.