Bug #52380 Server does not start after installation: unknown variable default-character-set
Submitted: 25 Mar 2010 21:21 Modified: 27 Aug 2010 13:45
Reporter: Elena Stepanova Email Updates:
Status: Closed Impact on me:
None 
Category:MySQL Server: Installing Severity:S2 (Serious)
Version:5.5.3-m3 OS:Windows
Assigned to: Daniel Fischer CPU Architecture:Any

[25 Mar 2010 21:21] Elena Stepanova 
Description:
After installing MySQL msi package and configuring via Instance Config Wizard, server does not start. The error log contains
[ERROR] C:\Program Files\MySQL\MySQL Server 5.5\bin\mysqld: unknown variable 'default-character-set=utf8'
(or any other charset value I set in the wizard during configuration).

I assume it happens because, although default-character-set server variable is removed from server, my-template.ini still contains it. After I manually changed the variable name in the template to 'character-set-server' and re-ran the config wizard, server started normally.

How to repeat:
- install MySQL from mysql-5.5.3-m3-win32.msi or mysql-5.5.3-m3-winx64.msi;
- run Instance Config Wizard, accept defaults (or change values as needed);
  => service startup fails: 'The service could not be started. Error: 0'
- try to start the service manually
  => same result
- check error log file
  => error message as quoted in description
[25 Mar 2010 23:55] MySQL Verification Team 
Thank you for the bug report. Verified as described.
[1 Apr 2010 15:54] Patrick Crews 
Tested patched .msi.  Variable names have been changed in the .ini files so that an incorrect / non-existent name is not used. 

Server started as expected / worked as expected with limited testing (issue was server not starting at all, truncated functional testing was performed)
[16 May 2010 19:24] Marco Podda 
The same issue is in the win32-x86 msi installation.
[25 Aug 2010 14:24] Daniel Fischer 
Fixed in svn in April.
[27 Aug 2010 13:45] MC Brown 
A note has been added to the 5.5.5 changelog: 

        During installing of MySQL server using the MSI package on                                                                                         
        Windows, the <literal>default-character-set</literal> option                                                                                       
        would be included in the default configuration template                                                                                            
        file. This would cause the MySQL server to fail to start                                                                                           
        properly.