Issue running LTS (8.4) Docker container on Ubuntu 24.04 (works with v8-debian)

[deliciousbob]

Hi everyone!
It caused me headache the last couple of days... i found something...
I have a new Ubuntu Server and wanted to run mysql:lts on docker

I always got the Errors:
[ERROR] [MY-010020] [Server] Data Dictionary initialization failed.
[ERROR] [MY-013236] [Server] The designated data directory /var/lib/mysql/ is unusable. You can remove all files that the server added to it.

But my folder was absolutely empty... i checked the internet, found some folkes had the same issue, but no solution to the error...
Played around with local users like 999:999 or a dedicated mysql user... nothing worked....

After countless tries ... I decided to try other images, so i ran the same container settings with mysql:8-debian
IT WAS RUNNING OUT OF THE BOX ... i thought... WTF - why ??
When i tried do find a newer debian version... no-no... seems mysql decided to quit debian sources after v8.0
you guys now only go with oraclelinux as base-image... :-(

Is there a way to fix that issue MY-013236 for Docker containers running on Debian / Ubuntu hosts?
Or better, is there any chance that we get the debian base-images back ?

Thx, best regards, Robert

[tianon]

I'm on a Debian Trixie host, and I can't reproduce an issue: 😅

$ docker run -it --rm --name my --env MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD=foobar --pull=always mysql:8.4
8.4: Pulling from library/mysql
Digest: sha256:1f5b0aca09cfa06d9a7b89b28d349c1e01ba0d31339a4786fbcb3d5927070130
Status: Image is up to date for mysql:8.4
2026-01-02 22:26:53+00:00 [Note] [Entrypoint]: Entrypoint script for MySQL Server 8.4.7-1.el9 started.
2026-01-02 22:26:53+00:00 [Note] [Entrypoint]: Switching to dedicated user 'mysql'
2026-01-02 22:26:53+00:00 [Note] [Entrypoint]: Entrypoint script for MySQL Server 8.4.7-1.el9 started.
2026-01-02 22:26:54+00:00 [Note] [Entrypoint]: Initializing database files
2026-01-02T22:26:54.069680Z 0 [System] [MY-015017] [Server] MySQL Server Initialization - start.
2026-01-02T22:26:54.071133Z 0 [System] [MY-013169] [Server] /usr/sbin/mysqld (mysqld 8.4.7) initializing of server in progress as process 80
2026-01-02T22:26:54.081211Z 1 [System] [MY-013576] [InnoDB] InnoDB initialization has started.
2026-01-02T22:26:54.528104Z 1 [System] [MY-013577] [InnoDB] InnoDB initialization has ended.
2026-01-02T22:26:55.587896Z 6 [Warning] [MY-010453] [Server] root@localhost is created with an empty password ! Please consider switching off the --initialize-insecure option.
2026-01-02T22:26:57.424875Z 0 [System] [MY-015018] [Server] MySQL Server Initialization - end.
2026-01-02 22:26:57+00:00 [Note] [Entrypoint]: Database files initialized
2026-01-02 22:26:57+00:00 [Note] [Entrypoint]: Starting temporary server
mysqld will log errors to /var/lib/mysql/6c513405f325.err
mysqld is running as pid 127
2026-01-02 22:26:58+00:00 [Note] [Entrypoint]: Temporary server started.
'/var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock' -> '/var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock'
Warning: Unable to load '/usr/share/zoneinfo/iso3166.tab' as time zone. Skipping it.
Warning: Unable to load '/usr/share/zoneinfo/leap-seconds.list' as time zone. Skipping it.
Warning: Unable to load '/usr/share/zoneinfo/leapseconds' as time zone. Skipping it.
Warning: Unable to load '/usr/share/zoneinfo/tzdata.zi' as time zone. Skipping it.
Warning: Unable to load '/usr/share/zoneinfo/zone.tab' as time zone. Skipping it.
Warning: Unable to load '/usr/share/zoneinfo/zone1970.tab' as time zone. Skipping it.

2026-01-02 22:26:59+00:00 [Note] [Entrypoint]: Stopping temporary server
2026-01-02 22:27:00+00:00 [Note] [Entrypoint]: Temporary server stopped

2026-01-02 22:27:00+00:00 [Note] [Entrypoint]: MySQL init process done. Ready for start up.

2026-01-02T22:27:00.893886Z 0 [System] [MY-015015] [Server] MySQL Server - start.
2026-01-02T22:27:01.084621Z 0 [System] [MY-010116] [Server] /usr/sbin/mysqld (mysqld 8.4.7) starting as process 1
2026-01-02T22:27:01.093229Z 1 [System] [MY-013576] [InnoDB] InnoDB initialization has started.
2026-01-02T22:27:01.454411Z 1 [System] [MY-013577] [InnoDB] InnoDB initialization has ended.
2026-01-02T22:27:01.697600Z 0 [Warning] [MY-010068] [Server] CA certificate ca.pem is self signed.
2026-01-02T22:27:01.697626Z 0 [System] [MY-013602] [Server] Channel mysql_main configured to support TLS. Encrypted connections are now supported for this channel.
2026-01-02T22:27:01.701344Z 0 [Warning] [MY-011810] [Server] Insecure configuration for --pid-file: Location '/var/run/mysqld' in the path is accessible to all OS users. Consider choosing a different directory.
2026-01-02T22:27:01.751118Z 0 [System] [MY-011323] [Server] X Plugin ready for connections. Bind-address: '::' port: 33060, socket: /var/run/mysqld/mysqlx.sock
2026-01-02T22:27:01.751207Z 0 [System] [MY-010931] [Server] /usr/sbin/mysqld: ready for connections. Version: '8.4.7'  socket: '/var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock'  port: 3306  MySQL Community Server - GPL.

Do you have any more clues as to what might be different in your environment?

[HermanJanssen]

I've solved my issue #1130 after some further investigation/testing:
After a backup of my current MariaDB I've restored an older db version but still had the same error messages. Even an empty database did give the same message so the only thing left for me was the conclusion this is an installation issue. Consequently, I've cleaned my current docker container on my NAS and reinstalled mysql (now using mysql:latest) using portainer with similar setup as I had in the older installation. This solved the issue for me