It was working fine before and I was configuring the mysql (via /etc/init.d/mysql restart). I'm pretty sure that I did not touch anything in there but I can remember doing a failed apt-get update prior to that.

Now my problem starts when all of a sudden it stops and won't even start. I searched on google and even went far to purging everything and doing a new install. But still it won't let me install mysql properly.

I've tried (after doing a remove --purge):

sudo apt-get install mysql-server-5.5 mysql-client-5.5

and it prompts me for a root passsword, but returns me the MySQL "root" user An error occurred while setting the MySQL administrative user. may happened the already has a password, or the MySQL server. You should check account's password after the /usr/share/doc/mysql-server-5.5/README.Debian file for more information.

and I the following logs too:

Selecting previously deselected package mysql-server-5.5.

(Reading database ... 117879 files and directories currently installed.)

Unpacking mysql-server-5.5 (from .../mysql-server-5.5_5.5.32-0ubuntu0.12.04.1_amd64.deb) ...

Processing triggers for man-db ...

Processing triggers for ureadahead ...

Setting up mysql-server-5.5 (5.5.32-0ubuntu0.12.04.1) ...

130830 14:13:26 [ERROR] Can't find messagefile '/usr/share/mysql/errmsg.sys'

start: Job failed to start

invoke-rc.d: initscript mysql, action "start" failed.

dpkg: error processing mysql-server-5.5 (--configure):

 subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1

Errors were encountered while processing:

 mysql-server-5.5

E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

any help? Thanks in advance.

the same issue it solved by uninstalling but before that he tried to set the question and then he tried to solve it in chat maybe when you try to set a password it will be solved , just try

Update: Type the /var/lib/mysql folder if exist by typing the official ubuntu documentation to install. and don't forget to set your mysql password during installation.

Also see the error you the installation process.