On Wed, 17 Mar 2021 16:50:06 +0100 Per Jessen <per@computer.org> wrote:

Dave Howorth wrote:

...

Mar 17 14:30:26 acer-suse mysql-systemd-helper[1629]: [103B blob data] Mar 17 14:30:26 acer-suse mysql-systemd-helper[1629]: Fatal error in defaults handling. Program aborted

Wild guess - check your config file(s).

https://mariadb.com/kb/en/99b-blob-data/

Thanks Per. I just found the problem. I started at that very link as it happened. It isn't too helpful but it does point out systemd as the first place to start. So after a while I got the following: # systemctl --all status mariadb ● mariadb.service - MySQL server Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/mariadb.service; enabled; vendor preset: disabled) Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Wed 2021-03-17 15:20:26 GMT; 32min ago Process: 5169 ExecStart=/usr/lib/mysql/mysql-systemd-helper start (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE) Process: 5161 ExecStartPre=/usr/lib/mysql/mysql-systemd-helper upgrade (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS) Process: 5153 ExecStartPre=/usr/lib/mysql/mysql-systemd-helper install (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS) Main PID: 5169 (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE) Mar 17 15:20:26 acer-suse mysql-systemd-helper[5153]: ^G/usr/bin/my_print_defaults: Can't read dir of '/etc/my.cnf.d' (Errcode: 2 "No such file or directory") Mar 17 15:20:26 acer-suse mysql-systemd-helper[5153]: Fatal error in defaults handling. Program aborted Mar 17 15:20:26 acer-suse systemd[1]: mariadb.service: Unit entered failed state. Mar 17 15:20:26 acer-suse mysql-systemd-helper[5161]: ^G/usr/bin/my_print_defaults: Can't read dir of '/etc/my.cnf.d' (Errcode: 2 "No such file or directory") Mar 17 15:20:26 acer-suse mysql-systemd-helper[5161]: Fatal error in defaults handling. Program aborted Mar 17 15:20:26 acer-suse systemd[1]: mariadb.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'. Mar 17 15:20:26 acer-suse mysql-systemd-helper[5169]: ^G/usr/bin/my_print_defaults: Can't read dir of '/etc/my.cnf.d' (Errcode: 2 "No such file or directory") Mar 17 15:20:26 acer-suse mysql-systemd-helper[5169]: Fatal error in defaults handling. Program aborted Mar 17 15:20:26 acer-suse mysql-systemd-helper[5169]: ^G/usr/sbin/mysqld: Can't read dir of '/etc/my.cnf.d' (Errcode: 2 "No such file or directory") Mar 17 15:20:26 acer-suse mysql-systemd-helper[5169]: Fatal error in defaults handling. Program aborted Quite why 'it' is sending a ^G to a logfile is beyond my poor brain, but anyway... So I checked and there was indeed no /etc/my.cnf.d/ So then I looked at the backups and saw that there was such a directory two days ago: # ls -la /backup/acer-suse/as-system/2021-03-15/tree/etc/my.cnf.d/ total 14 drwxr-x--- 2 root mysql 96 Feb 10 10:19 . drwxr-xr-x 167 root root 10232 Mar 12 15:40 .. -rw-r----- 6 root mysql 22 Mar 9 2019 zoneminder_mysql_settings.cnf Hmm :( After the first set of power cuts I discovered that zoneminder had started and was taking a lot of CPU time. Now I disabled it I thought a while ago after some experiments, but apparently not firmly enough. So I went into YaST and removed zoneminder. Evidently it got a bit overenthusiastic and removed the directory as well as the file, and something else is a bit too keen and wants an empty directory. So I recreated the directory and now mariadb starts happily again. Bah! Another hour wasted.