MySQL service stops after trying to grant privileges to a user

I am using MySQL 5.6, I was trying to create a super user for specific database but I got

ERROR 1396 (HY000): Operation CREATE USER failed for 'superuser'@'%'

Then I thought maybe there is already a user with the same name and password. I flushed privileges and run the following query:

grant all privileges on db1.* to 'superuser'@'localhost'

After that query I get: ERROR 2013 (HY000): Lost connection to MySQL server during query
and MySQL service stops working.

I think your problem boils down to a misalignment of grants.

When you run this query

SELECT COUNT(1) column_count FROM information_schema.columns
WHERE table_schema='mysql' AND table_name='user';

You should the following number

• If you get 43, MySQL 5.6

• If you get 42, MySQL 5.5

• If you get 39, MySQL 5.1

• If you get 37, MySQL 5.0

It simply means you forgot one more upgrade step

# mysql_upgrade --upgrade-system-tables

This should fill in the missing columns.

I discussed this before

• May 01, 2013 : Can I find out what version of MySQL from the data files?

• Apr 24, 2014 : mysql: Restore All privileges to admin user (StackOverflow)

Since you said that mysql.user has 39, than means you did not run mysql_upgrade --upgrade-system-tables when you went from MySQL 5.1 to MySQL 5.5.

To be honest with you, I do not know if running mysql_upgrade --upgrade-system-tables in MySQL 5.6 will successfully realign mysql.user two versions back.

I would suggest making a copy by doing the following

net stop mysql
cd D:\MySQL\mysql
copy user.frm user1.frm
copy user.MYD user1.MYD
copy user.MYI user1.MYI
net start mysql

After making the copy, go ahead and run mysql_upgrade --upgrade-system-tables. Login to mysql and run SELECT COUNT(1) column_count FROM information_schema.columns WHERE table_schema='mysql' AND table_name='user'; again. Hopefully it will read 43.

If it does not, copy the user files back like this

net stop mysql
cd D:\MySQL\mysql
del user.*
move user1.frm user.frm
move user1.MYD user.MYD
move user1.MYI user.MYI
net start mysql

If you want to change the design manually, try the following:

Create mysql.user_new with MySQL 5.6 layout

CREATE TABLE mysql.user_new (
  `Host` char(60) COLLATE utf8_bin NOT NULL DEFAULT '',
  `User` char(16) COLLATE utf8_bin NOT NULL DEFAULT '',
  `Password` char(41) CHARACTER SET latin1 COLLATE latin1_bin NOT NULL DEFAULT '',
  `Select_priv` enum('N','Y') CHARACTER SET utf8 NOT NULL DEFAULT 'N',
  `Insert_priv` enum('N','Y') CHARACTER SET utf8 NOT NULL DEFAULT 'N',
  `Update_priv` enum('N','Y') CHARACTER SET utf8 NOT NULL DEFAULT 'N',
  `Delete_priv` enum('N','Y') CHARACTER SET utf8 NOT NULL DEFAULT 'N',
  `Create_priv` enum('N','Y') CHARACTER SET utf8 NOT NULL DEFAULT 'N',
  `Drop_priv` enum('N','Y') CHARACTER SET utf8 NOT NULL DEFAULT 'N',
  `Reload_priv` enum('N','Y') CHARACTER SET utf8 NOT NULL DEFAULT 'N',
  `Shutdown_priv` enum('N','Y') CHARACTER SET utf8 NOT NULL DEFAULT 'N',
  `Process_priv` enum('N','Y') CHARACTER SET utf8 NOT NULL DEFAULT 'N',
  `File_priv` enum('N','Y') CHARACTER SET utf8 NOT NULL DEFAULT 'N',
  `Grant_priv` enum('N','Y') CHARACTER SET utf8 NOT NULL DEFAULT 'N',
  `References_priv` enum('N','Y') CHARACTER SET utf8 NOT NULL DEFAULT 'N',
  `Index_priv` enum('N','Y') CHARACTER SET utf8 NOT NULL DEFAULT 'N',
  `Alter_priv` enum('N','Y') CHARACTER SET utf8 NOT NULL DEFAULT 'N',
  `Show_db_priv` enum('N','Y') CHARACTER SET utf8 NOT NULL DEFAULT 'N',
  `Super_priv` enum('N','Y') CHARACTER SET utf8 NOT NULL DEFAULT 'N',
  `Create_tmp_table_priv` enum('N','Y') CHARACTER SET utf8 NOT NULL DEFAULT 'N',
  `Lock_tables_priv` enum('N','Y') CHARACTER SET utf8 NOT NULL DEFAULT 'N',
  `Execute_priv` enum('N','Y') CHARACTER SET utf8 NOT NULL DEFAULT 'N',
  `Repl_slave_priv` enum('N','Y') CHARACTER SET utf8 NOT NULL DEFAULT 'N',
  `Repl_client_priv` enum('N','Y') CHARACTER SET utf8 NOT NULL DEFAULT 'N',
  `Create_view_priv` enum('N','Y') CHARACTER SET utf8 NOT NULL DEFAULT 'N',
  `Show_view_priv` enum('N','Y') CHARACTER SET utf8 NOT NULL DEFAULT 'N',
  `Create_routine_priv` enum('N','Y') CHARACTER SET utf8 NOT NULL DEFAULT 'N',
  `Alter_routine_priv` enum('N','Y') CHARACTER SET utf8 NOT NULL DEFAULT 'N',
  `Create_user_priv` enum('N','Y') CHARACTER SET utf8 NOT NULL DEFAULT 'N',
  `Event_priv` enum('N','Y') CHARACTER SET utf8 NOT NULL DEFAULT 'N',
  `Trigger_priv` enum('N','Y') CHARACTER SET utf8 NOT NULL DEFAULT 'N',
  `Create_tablespace_priv` enum('N','Y') CHARACTER SET utf8 NOT NULL DEFAULT 'N',
  `ssl_type` enum('','ANY','X509','SPECIFIED') CHARACTER SET utf8 NOT NULL DEFAULT '',
  `ssl_cipher` blob NOT NULL,
  `x509_issuer` blob NOT NULL,
  `x509_subject` blob NOT NULL,
  `max_questions` int(11) unsigned NOT NULL DEFAULT '0',
  `max_updates` int(11) unsigned NOT NULL DEFAULT '0',
  `max_connections` int(11) unsigned NOT NULL DEFAULT '0',
  `max_user_connections` int(11) unsigned NOT NULL DEFAULT '0',
  `plugin` char(64) COLLATE utf8_bin DEFAULT '',
  `authentication_string` text COLLATE utf8_bin,
  `password_expired` enum('N','Y') CHARACTER SET utf8 NOT NULL DEFAULT 'N',
  PRIMARY KEY (`Host`,`User`)
) ENGINE=MyISAM DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8 COLLATE=utf8_bin COMMENT='Users and global privileges';

Move the Grants from Old to New

```
INSERT INTO mysql.user_new
(Host,User,Password,Select_priv,Insert_priv,Update_priv,Delete_priv,
Create_priv,Drop_priv,Reload_priv,Shutdown_priv,Process_priv,File_priv,
G

StackExchange Database Administrators Q#78923, answer score: 11