How to fix Failed at step EXEC spawning /usr/sbin/mysqld: No such file or directory status=203/EXEC

This guide explains why MariaDB fails to start with status=203/EXEC and how to fix the missing mysqld or mariadbd binary on Linux servers.

Common Causes

MariaDB/MySQL was uninstalled midway during VPS migration

The mysqld binary path was changed

Debian 11/12 usually uses:

/usr/sbin/mariadbd

instead of mysqld

The service file /etc/systemd/system/mariadb.service is outdated/incorrect

Create symlink mysqld → mariadbd

ln -s /usr/sbin/mariadbd /usr/sbin/mysqld

Then

systemctl daemon-reexec
systemctl daemon-reload
systemctl start mariadb
systemctl status mariadb

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