Install the latest version of MariaDB with Koha

Image courtesy: Mariadb.org

MariaDB is a community fork of MySQL. Latest versions of Koha support MariaDB. Current versions of Ubuntu and Debian repository provide the old version of MariaDB. Users can add the latest version of MariaDB by adding the software repository. The following method can install MariaDB 10.3 with an existing Koha installation on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS. MariaDB installation details can be found at mariadb.org

Installation of MariaDB
The process includes adding the MariaDB repository information to Ubuntu and install the database. Take a backup of the Koha database before the installation process.

Upgrade Ubuntu
Open a terminal and apply the following commands one by one;

sudo apt-get update 
sudo apt-get upgrade

Add MariaDB repository
Login as Root User.

sudo su

apt-get install curl software-properties-common dirmngr

curl -sS https://downloads.mariadb.com/MariaDB/mariadb_repo_setup | sudo bash

Install MariaDB

apt-get install mariadb-server

Need to enter the Root password when the installation process ask. Give the same old MySQL root password.

After the installation try to Log into MariaDB,

sudo su
mysql -uroot -p

You will get following message,

ERROR 1524 (HY000): Plugin 'unix_socket' is not loaded

Go to the following link and apply the solution mentioned in the forum to fix it,

https://askubuntu.com/questions/705458/ubuntu-15-10-mysql-error-1524-unix-socket

Reference
https://mariadb.com/kb/en/library/mariadb-package-repository-setup-and-usage/