Anyway I upgraded Ubuntu and now mysql is in a boot loop where it starts up, prints "Starting upgrade of data directory", prints "table SPECIFIC_TABLE_THAT_SHOULD_BE_THERE not found in InnoDB dictionary", then prints "aborting" and the process begins again. Most of the repair tools for mysql seem to assume the mysqld is already running rather than in a boot loop. There are 210 people in the #mysql irc channel on Libera and no one but me is talking. I'm not actually sure where to begin here!
oblomov