Comment 9 for bug 989353

I tried again, and I got:

# apt-get --purge remove mysql-server-5.1 mysql-server-5.5
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Virtual packages like 'mysql-server-5.1' can't be removed
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  mysql-server-5.5*
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
1 not fully installed or removed.
After this operation, 31.3 MB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? Y
(Reading database ... 243407 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing mysql-server-5.5 ...
Purging configuration files for mysql-server-5.5 ...
Processing triggers for ureadahead ...
Processing triggers for man-db ...

The most important part is:

Virtual packages like 'mysql-server-5.1' can't be removed

I can't get rid of mysql-server-5.1.

Thanks in advance.