Installing MySQL 5 Server on Ubuntu is a quick and easy process. It almost feels like it should be more difficult.
Open a terminal window, and use the following command:
sudo apt-get install mysql-server
During the installation of MySQL the installer will ask you to enter the password of the root or the main admin of your database server.
If you are running PHP you will also need to install the php module for mysql 5:
sudo apt-get install php5-mysql
To create a new database, use the mysqladmin command:
mysqladmin create [databasename]
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