Comment 3 for bug 306002

I can attest to having the same problem; using 8.10.
In my case, I installed "sudo apt-get install mythtv", (which installed mysql-server correctly).
But I removed mythtv soon after install (as I screwed up one of the options picked during install).
After successive tries to (re) install mythtv (along with mysql-server), I continue to get this error.
I believe at some point I deleted /etc/mysql -- in hopes of clearing everything and getting a fresh install.
Now during installation of mythtv, I get this problem, as it appears I've lost the original "my.cnf" and it never gets replaced by successive attempts to (re)install mythtv.