Stop MySQL from auto starting in Ubuntu

That’s right.

If you’ve tried using update-rc.d and sysv-rc-conf and STILL see mysql process starting up!

krish@shenron:~$ ls -ltr /etc/rc?.d | grep mysql
krish@shenron:~$ ps aux | grep mysql | grep -v grep
mysql     1172  0.0  1.1 177888 18996 ?        Ssl  Sep03   0:01 /usr/sbin/mysqld
krish@shenron:~$ WTF!!!

Here’s where it matters and how to stop mysql from auto starting:

krish@shenron:~$ grep -A3 "start on" /etc/init/mysql.conf
start on (net-device-up
          and local-filesystems
	  and runlevel [2345])
stop on runlevel [016]

Just comment out the 3 lines for “start on” to make it

krish@shenron:~$ grep -A3 "start on" /etc/init/mysql.conf
#start on (net-device-up
#          and local-filesystems
#          and runlevel [2345])
stop on runlevel [016]

Reboot and check:

krish@shenron:~$ sudo init 6