Upgrading from MySQL to MariaDB - MariaDB Knowledge Base
mariadb.com › kb › enFor upgrading from very old MySQL versions, see Upgrading to MariaDB from MySQL 5.0 (or older version). Within the same base version (for example MySQL 5.5 -> MariaDB 5.5 , MySQL 5.6 -> MariaDB 10.0 and MySQL 5.7 -> MariaDB 10.2 ) you can in most cases just uninstall MySQL and install MariaDB and you are good to go.
Upgrading to MariaDB From MySQL 5.0 or Older - MariaDB ...
mariadb.com › kb › enThis will also update your privilege tables in the mysql database to the latest format. In almost all cases mysql_upgrade should be able to convert your tables, without you having to dump and restore your data. After installing MariaDB, just do: mysql_upgrade --verbose. If you want to run with a specific TCP/IP port do: mysql_upgrade --host=127 ...