Failed to find valid data directory. MySQL generic binary installion - mysql

Question

Im going to install mysql to linux server. But I dont have root access to that server. So I created two folders called mysql and mysqldata. mysql folder holds binary files. mysqldata folder holds data and the logs.
my.cnf
[mysqld]
user = mysql
port = 3306
bind-address = localhost
basedir = /home/nwn/mysql/mysql-8.0
socket = /home/nwn/mysqldata/instA/socket/mysql.sock
datadir = /home/nwn/mysqldata/instA/data
tmpdir = /home/nwn/mysqldata/instA/tmp
secure_file_priv = /home/nwn/mysqldata/instA/mysql-files
max_connections = 150
# Logging
log-bin = /home/nwn/mysqldata/instA/logs/instA-binlog
log-error = /home/nwn/mysqldata/instA/logs/instA-errorlog.err
slow_query_log = 1
slow_query_log_file = /home/nwn/mysqldata/instA/logs/instA-slowquery.log
long_query_time = 0.5
# InnoDB
innodb_data_home_dir = /home/nwn/mysqldata/instA/innodb/data
innodb_data_file_path = ibdata1:50M;ibdata2:12M:autoextend:max:500M
innodb_log_group_home_dir = /home/nwn/mysqldata/instA/innodb/log
innodb_buffer_pool_size = 32M
# MyISAM
key_buffer_size = 16M
server_id = 1
I did all the other configurations.
when I run following command
mysql-8.0]$ bin/mysqld --defaults-file=~/mysqldata/instA/my.cnf --initialize-insercure
I have following logs in the error_log
cat ~/mysqldata/instA/logs/instA-errorlog.err
2018-10-09T10:39:51.127424Z 0 [Warning] [MY-010139] [Server] Changed limits: max_open_files: 1024 (requested 8160)
2018-10-09T10:39:51.127523Z 0 [Warning] [MY-010142] [Server] Changed limits: table_open_cache: 432 (requested 4000)
2018-10-09T10:39:51.383986Z 0 [Warning] [MY-010101] [Server] Insecure configuration for --secure-file-priv: Location is accessible to all OS users. Consider choosing a different directory.
2018-10-09T10:39:51.384043Z 0 [System] [MY-010116] [Server] /home/nwn/mysql/mysql-8.0/bin/mysqld (mysqld 8.0.12) starting as process 32654
2018-10-09T10:39:51.386625Z 0 [Warning] [MY-010122] [Server] One can only use the --user switch if running as root
2018-10-09T10:39:51.394675Z 1 [ERROR] [MY-011011] [Server] Failed to find valid data directory.
2018-10-09T10:39:51.394817Z 0 [ERROR] [MY-010020] [Server] Data Dictionary initialization failed.
2018-10-09T10:39:51.394831Z 0 [ERROR] [MY-010119] [Server] Aborting
2018-10-09T10:39:51.395363Z 0 [System] [MY-010910] [Server] /home/nwn/mysql/mysql-8.0/bin/mysqld: Shutdown complete (mysqld 8.0.12) MySQL Community Server - GPL.

Answer 1

Even though the post is very old, but posting my solution as it took me around 2 hours to figure it out and this can help someone save that time.
You can try doing :
shell> mysqld --initialize
This shall initialse the data directory in the path where you have installed MySql server. Generally placed at C:\Program Files\MySQL\MySQL Server 8.0.
Hope it helps someone.

Answer 2

Please follow these steps to reset your MySQL Password on Windows:
Stop MySQL Service # services.msc
Create file change_mysql_pwd.txt with following content (replase YourNewPassword with desired new password you want to have for root user:
ALTER USER 'root'#'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'YourNewPassword';
Save the file under C:\ change_mysql_pwd.txt
Run CMD.exe as Admin (Start->Cmd->Right Click->Run as Administrator)
Type in cmd: cd "C:\Program Files\MySQL\MySQL Server 8.0\bin"
Create “Data” Folder under "C:\Program Files\MySQL\MySQL Server 8.0\ (if already exists delete its contents!)
Type in cmd: mysqld --install
Type in cmd: mysqld --initialize
Type in cmd: mysqld --init-file=C:\\change_mysql_pwd.txt
Login with root user account and the password set above.
Delete C:\ change_mysql_pwd.txt file
Enjoy...

Answer 3

(context: new setup, mysql 8 on windows server 2016)
What really helped me to get rid of "Failed to find valid data directory" was:
mysqld --initialize --console
The --console part tells you straight away on the command line what is wrong and what to do. Because I had a clean install, i lacked the "data" directory. However if you have settings in your my.ini that are not supported in the newly installed version, a "data" directory will be generated nevertheless with the command listed above. If you have more then one faulty setting in my.ini, you'll need to delete the newly created "data" directory first.
CAUTION: check first if you have databases in the data directory, else you'll loose all your databases!! So only use this on fresh installs.
In steps:
run mysqld --initialize --console from a cmd as administrator
fix the my.ini faulty line, delete the data directory (ONLY IF YOU HAVE A NEW INSTALLATION: else you'll loose all your databases!)
rerun mysqld --initialize --console
repeat until all errors are fixed.
Now MySql should start.

Answer 4

As far as I understand from your console output you try to initialize the database while there exist files in your data directory. First you should remove all files (please be careful here, you may loss your data) in the data directory of your MySQL, and then you should run the command below
shell> mysqld --initialize --console
as stated by #Alex Karshin, #Lazycoder_0071 and #Freeze_H. MySQL should initialize the database seamlessly if there isn't another problem.

Answer 5

What Kevin Kopf and Lazycoder_007 indicate in https://stackoverflow.com/a/62003723/7733418 worked for me fine, along with
deleting the files within the "data" folder before initialization (thanks to P D)
running mysqld --initialize in cmd as administrator