Failed to find valid data directory. MySQL generic binary installion

Question

Im going to install mysql to linux server. But I dont have root access to that server. So I created two folders called mysql and mysqldata. mysql folder holds binary files. mysqldata folder holds data and the logs.

my.cnf

[mysqld]
user                    = mysql
port                    = 3306
bind-address            = localhost
basedir                 = /home/nwn/mysql/mysql-8.0
socket                  = /home/nwn/mysqldata/instA/socket/mysql.sock
datadir                 = /home/nwn/mysqldata/instA/data
tmpdir                  = /home/nwn/mysqldata/instA/tmp
secure_file_priv        = /home/nwn/mysqldata/instA/mysql-files
max_connections         = 150

# Logging
log-bin                 = /home/nwn/mysqldata/instA/logs/instA-binlog
log-error               = /home/nwn/mysqldata/instA/logs/instA-errorlog.err
slow_query_log          = 1
slow_query_log_file     = /home/nwn/mysqldata/instA/logs/instA-slowquery.log
long_query_time         = 0.5

# InnoDB
innodb_data_home_dir    = /home/nwn/mysqldata/instA/innodb/data
innodb_data_file_path   = ibdata1:50M;ibdata2:12M:autoextend:max:500M
innodb_log_group_home_dir = /home/nwn/mysqldata/instA/innodb/log
innodb_buffer_pool_size = 32M

# MyISAM
key_buffer_size         = 16M

server_id                = 1

I did all the other configurations. when I run following command

mysql-8.0]$ bin/mysqld --defaults-file=~/mysqldata/instA/my.cnf --initialize-insercure

I have following logs in the error_log

 cat ~/mysqldata/instA/logs/instA-errorlog.err
2018-10-09T10:39:51.127424Z 0 [Warning] [MY-010139] [Server] Changed limits: max_open_files: 1024 (requested 8160)
2018-10-09T10:39:51.127523Z 0 [Warning] [MY-010142] [Server] Changed limits: table_open_cache: 432 (requested 4000)
2018-10-09T10:39:51.383986Z 0 [Warning] [MY-010101] [Server] Insecure configuration for --secure-file-priv: Location is accessible to all OS users. Consider choosing a different directory.
2018-10-09T10:39:51.384043Z 0 [System] [MY-010116] [Server] /home/nwn/mysql/mysql-8.0/bin/mysqld (mysqld 8.0.12) starting as process 32654
2018-10-09T10:39:51.386625Z 0 [Warning] [MY-010122] [Server] One can only use the --user switch if running as root
2018-10-09T10:39:51.394675Z 1 [ERROR] [MY-011011] [Server] Failed to find valid data directory.
2018-10-09T10:39:51.394817Z 0 [ERROR] [MY-010020] [Server] Data Dictionary initialization failed.
2018-10-09T10:39:51.394831Z 0 [ERROR] [MY-010119] [Server] Aborting
2018-10-09T10:39:51.395363Z 0 [System] [MY-010910] [Server] /home/nwn/mysql/mysql-8.0/bin/mysqld: Shutdown complete (mysqld 8.0.12)  MySQL Community Server - GPL.

Answer 1

Even though the post is very old, but posting my solution as it took me around 2 hours to figure it out and this can help someone save that time.

You can try doing :

shell> mysqld --initialize

This shall initialse the data directory in the path where you have installed MySql server. Generally placed at C:\Program Files\MySQL\MySQL Server 8.0.

Hope it helps someone.