Bug #55608 mysqld fails to start with --skip-innodb
Submitted: 28 Jul 2010 16:06
Reporter: Mikhail Izioumtchenko Email Updates:
Status: Verified Impact on me:
None 
Category:MySQL Server: General Severity:S3 (Non-critical)
Version:5.5 OS:Any
Assigned to: CPU Architecture:Any

[28 Jul 2010 16:06] Mikhail Izioumtchenko 
Description:
after a recent merge from parent, mysqld no longer starts with 
--skip-innodb reporting:

100728  9:00:39 [Note] Plugin 'FEDERATED' is disabled.
100728  9:00:39 [Note] Plugin 'InnoDB' is disabled.
100728  9:00:39 [ERROR] Unknown/unsupported storage engine: InnoDB
100728  9:00:39 [ERROR] Aborting

100728  9:00:39 [Note] /spare2/mizioumt/ctc/mysql_c55/bin/mysqld: Shutdown complete

How to repeat:
mysql-trunk-innodb r3145, maybe a few revision before that:

mysqld --defaults-file=/spare2/mizioumt/ctc/log/c55/my0.cnf --core  --sql-mode=NO_ENGINE_SUBSTITUTION --pid-file=/spare2/mizioumt/ctc/log/c55/mysqld_c55_3073_crtest.pid --datadir=/spare2/mizioumt/ctc/data/c55 --tmpdir=/spare2/mizioumt/ctc/data/c55 --skip-innodb

where my0.cnf doesn't contain anything important so shouldn't matter
[28 Jul 2010 16:16] MySQL Verification Team 
what about adding --storage-engine=myisam ... ?
[28 Jul 2010 16:24] Mikhail Izioumtchenko 
adding --default-storage-engine=myisam is a workaround.
However what used to work, now fails.
If we want to fix this at all, we could consider falling back to myisam
when we find that the default engine is disabled.
[28 Jul 2010 16:33] Calvin Sun 
Starting at 5.5.5, InnoDB becomes the default storage engine, which should not be skipped / disabled. Suggest to change it to "Won't fix", but adjust tests accordingly if needed.
[29 Jul 2010 13:27] Mikhail Izioumtchenko 
to server for consideration as to whether to fix. As an easy workaround
is available, I think Won't fix should be OK but I'll let it 
for the server folks to decide.
[24 Apr 2011 6:51] Karoly Negyesi 
Please consider that InnoDB is still dog slow with DDL compared to MyISAM. I am developing some application on my laptop and do not half of what InnoDB can do for me.
[9 Nov 2014 1:53] Chris Calender 
In 5.6, if you want to run MyISAM only, you'll need to set the following in your config file:

default-storage-engine=MyISAM
default-tmp-storage-engine=MyISAM
innodb=OFF