I tested this with the upstream version too: ******************** Server version: 10.1.21-MariaDB-1~sid mariadb.org binary distribution
Copyright (c) 2000, 2016, Oracle, MariaDB Corporation Ab and others. Type 'help;' or '\h' for help. Type '\c' to clear the current input statement. MariaDB [(none)]> SELECT COUNT(*) FROM mysql.time_zone; +----------+ | COUNT(*) | +----------+ | 0 | +----------+ 1 row in set (0.00 sec) ******************** Based on discussions on #mariadb it seems that this table is maybe on purpose empty, and it is up to the database admin to populate and keep it updated. Anyway, the fix should be done upstream and then identically applied here in Debian. If you want to invest more time in this, please file and issue at jira.mariadb.org and mark this Debian issue with "forwarded https...."