Upgrading From MariaDB 10.5 to MariaDB 10.6 - Debian 11 / Ubuntu 20.04

First, update the packages index and upgrade:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

Modify the repository configuration. Example with /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mariadb.list:

sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mariadb.list

And in this file put:

deb [arch=amd64 signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/mariadb-keyring.pgp] https://mirrors.xtom.nl/mariadb/repo/10.6/debian bullseye main

deb [arch=amd64 signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/mariadb-keyring.pgp] https://mirrors.xtom.nl/mariadb/repo/10.6/ubuntu focal main

Save and exit.

Stop MariaDB:

sudo service mysql stop

Uninstall the old version of MariaDB:

Remove only Mariadb-Server is enough (no need to remove the other packages Mariadb- *):

sudo apt-get remove mariadb-server

Update the packages index with this command line:

sudo apt-get update

Install the new version of MariaDB:

sudo apt-get install mariadb-server galera-4 mariadb-client libmariadb3 mariadb-backup mariadb-common

Warning: The unit file, source configuration file or drop-ins of mariadb.service changed on disk. Run systemctl daemon-reload to reload units:

sudo systemctl daemon-reload

Then, update and upgrade:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

Then, remove and clean:

sudo apt-get autoremove
sudo apt-get autoclean

Then, make any desired changes to configuration options in option files, such as my.cnf (this includes removing any options that are no longer supported).

Start MariaDB:

sudo service mysql start

Run mysql_upgrade:

sudo mysql_upgrade

Then check the new MariaDB version:

mariadb --version

Various Links

MariaDB documentation:

MariaDB documentation - Upgrading from MariaDB 10.5 to MariaDB 10.6