Comment 51 for bug 77980

Please can someone give me at leaast a work around for this problem.

I am currently lumbered with Ubuntu 10.04 by my ISP (& cannot upgrade to 12.04 without completely redepolying my server) - and this issue is preventing me installing ANY packages it seems. ie. renders whole server pretty useless.

I have tried workarounds as suggested here - http://www.pkdavies.co.uk/66-mtop-access-denied-for-user-root.html - and elsewhere - creating mysql root user with (temporarily) NO password and limted privileges (PROCESS only).

But, when i run:

apt-get install mtop

it says now:

...
Setting up mtop (0.6.6-1.3) ...
ERROR 1044 (42000): Access denied for user 'root'@'localhost' to database 'mysql'
ERROR 1044 (42000) at line 2: Access denied for user 'root'@'localhost' to database 'mysql'
dpkg: error processing mtop (--configure):
...

(whereas previously it was saying:
...
Setting up mtop (0.6.6-1.3) ...
ERROR 1045 (28000): Access denied for user 'root'@'localhost' (using password: NO)
ERROR 1045 (28000): Access denied for user 'root'@'localhost' (using password: NO)
dpkg: error processing mtop (--configure):
...
)

 - does this mean:
a) i also have to create a (dummy) database named 'mysql' (as well as 'root' user)?
b) i have to set mysql root password to NULL EVERY time i want to use apt-get?

 - this all looks as if its getting pretty diabolical to even attempt a work around in this way.

(My original objective was simply to install fail2ban in order to thwart aggressive brute-force attacks brning my server down - and that failing install has led in turn to this can of worms).

My (customer) system is rendered useless as it is.

Please could someone give me some guidance here as to the best way to get over this problem?