You can uninstall MySQL and install MariaDB, and your applications may not even know the difference. Since these two databases are identical, we’re going to write a single post detailing how to install both on Ubuntu Linux. MariaDB is maintained and developed by the MariaDB Foundation while MySQL is owned by Oracle. If you’re a student or new user learning Linux, the easiest place to start learning is on Ubuntu Linux. Ubuntu is the modern, open-source Linux operating system for desktops, servers, and other devices. To get started with installing both MariaDB and MySQL databases on Ubuntu Linux, follow the steps below.
How to install MariaDB on Ubuntu Linux
As mentioned above, MariaDB is backward compatible with MySQL. It is maintained and developed by the MariaDB Foundation. MariaDB packages are available in Ubuntu repositories. So it can simply be installed using the apt package management. To install MariaDB, run the commands below. After installing, you can run the commands below to view the MariaDB service status. After running the command above, it should output similar lines as shown below. To check which versions of MariaDB are running, run the commands below. That should output similar lines as below.
How to install the latest versions and update MariaDB
The versions available in Ubuntu repositories for MariaDB are not the latest. To get the latest, you will want to add MariaDB repositories to Ubuntu. The repositories are maintained at the link below. MariaDB – Setting up MariaDB Repositories – MariaDB To there, select the version of Ubuntu you’re installing for, then select the latest version of MariaDB. As of this writing, the latest version of MariaDB is 10.6. Run the commands to add the 10.6 version to Ubuntu 20.04. Then install MariaDB
How to install MySQL on Ubuntu Linux
MySQL is also available via Ubuntu default repositories. Because of that, one can simply run the commands below to install MySQL using the apt package management tool. After installing MySQL, you can check its service status by running the commands below. That should output similar lines as below.
How to install the latest version of MySQL on Ubuntu Linux
Although MySQL server packages are included with Ubuntu, they may not necessarily be the latest. If you want to always get the latest versions of MySQL server downloaded to your servers, you might want to add its repository. The link below takes you to the repository file. https://dev.mysql.com/downloads Visit the download page and look for Ubuntu / Debian (Architecture Independent), DEB Package. Click the Download button to get the repository package… You can run the commands below, updating the version number (0.8.15-1) at the time of this writing, with the latest from the file above. When you run the commands above, you should get a config prompt Simply select OK as shown in the image below. Now that the repository is installed, run the commands below to install
How to secure MariaDB and MySQL
Both MariaDB and MySQL come with a script that allows you to perform some security operations. Run the commands below to invoke the script and perform some recommended tasks to secure the database. Both MariaDB and MySQL servers come with the root user set to use the auth_socket authentication method by default. The auth_socket plugin authenticates users that connect from the local host through the Unix socket file. This means that you can’t authenticate as a root by providing a password. To log on to MariaDB and MySQL servers as root, simply run the command below. You don’t need a password since it’s using the auth_socket method. The server console should come up. That should do it! Conclusion: This post showed you how to install MariaDB or MySQL on Ubuntu Linux. If you find any error above or have something to add, please use the comment form below.
