Maybe it is time for Sabayon to include Mariadb in Equo (where do I request this?)
Currently Mariadb is only available in Portage. So:
1.Backup Mysql databases
2.sudo /etc/init.d/mysql stop
3.sudo equo remove dev-db/mysql --nodeps
4.sudo emerge dev-db/mariadb
Unfortunately step 4. produces a blocking situation:
Calculating dependencies... done!
[ebuild N ] dev-db/mysql-5.5.29-r1 USE="community embedded extraengine perl ssl -berkdb -cluster -debug -jemalloc -latin1 -max-idx-128 -minimal -profiling (-selinux) -static -systemtap -tcmalloc {-test}"
[ebuild N ] dev-db/mariadb-5.5.28a USE="berkdb community perl ssl -cluster -debug -embedded -extraengine -jemalloc -latin1 -max-idx-128 -minimal -oqgraph -pbxt -profiling (-selinux) -sphinx -static -systemtap -tcmalloc {-test}"
[blocks B ] dev-db/mysql ("dev-db/mysql" is blocking dev-db/mariadb-5.5.28a)
[blocks B ] dev-db/mariadb ("dev-db/mariadb" is blocking dev-db/mysql-5.5.29-r1)
This Gentoo site http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-p-7214710.html said
It seems like mariadb is tied in when using the "minimal" use flag, at least with 5.1.66.
Solved it by masking >virtual/mysql-5.1.
That did not work for me.
I also commented out the following in /etc/portage/package.unmask
# We want MySQL 5.5, do we?
#=dev-db/mariadb-5.5*
#=dev-db/mysql-5.5*
#=virtual/mysql-5.5*
Still the block persists.
Any ideas?
Best wishes.
If it ain't broken don't fix it. 
