diff --git a/travis/phpunit-mariadb-travis.xml b/travis/phpunit-mariadb-travis.xml
index d49118b0..1eaee5b7 100644
--- a/travis/phpunit-mariadb-travis.xml
+++ b/travis/phpunit-mariadb-travis.xml
@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@
 		<server name="PHPBB_TEST_DBPORT" value="3306" />
 		<server name="PHPBB_TEST_DBNAME" value="phpbb_tests" />
 		<server name="PHPBB_TEST_DBUSER" value="root" />
-		<server name="PHPBB_TEST_DBPASSWD" value="rootpasswd" />
+		<server name="PHPBB_TEST_DBPASSWD" value="" />
 		<server name="PHPBB_TEST_TABLE_PREFIX" value="phpbb_"/>
 		<server name="PHPBB_FUNCTIONAL_URL" value="http://localhost/" />
 	</php>
diff --git a/travis/setup-mariadb.sh b/travis/setup-mariadb.sh
index 68359e40..7e5c4e7d 100644
--- a/travis/setup-mariadb.sh
+++ b/travis/setup-mariadb.sh
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@
 # @license http://opensource.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.php GNU General Public License v2
 #
 set -e
+set -x
 
 # MariaDB Series
 VERSION='5.5'
@@ -11,16 +12,38 @@ VERSION='5.5'
 # Operating system codename, e.g. "precise"
 OS_CODENAME=$(lsb_release --codename --short)
 
+# Manually purge MySQL to remove conflicting files (e.g. /etc/mysql/my.cnf)
+sudo apt-get purge -qq mysql-common
+
 if ! which add-apt-repository > /dev/null
 then
 	sudo apt-get update -qq
 	sudo apt-get install -qq python-software-properties
 fi
 
+MIRROR_DOMAIN='ftp.osuosl.org'
 sudo apt-key adv --recv-keys --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com 0xcbcb082a1bb943db
-sudo add-apt-repository "deb http://ftp.osuosl.org/pub/mariadb/repo/$VERSION/ubuntu $OS_CODENAME main"
+sudo add-apt-repository "deb http://$MIRROR_DOMAIN/pub/mariadb/repo/$VERSION/ubuntu $OS_CODENAME main"
 sudo apt-get update -qq
 
+# Pin repository in order to avoid conflicts with MySQL from distribution
+# repository. See https://mariadb.com/kb/en/installing-mariadb-deb-files
+# section "Version Mismatch Between MariaDB and Ubuntu/Debian Repositories"
+echo "
+Package: *
+Pin: origin $MIRROR_DOMAIN
+Pin-Priority: 1000
+" | sudo tee /etc/apt/preferences.d/mariadb
+
 sudo debconf-set-selections <<< "mariadb-server-$VERSION mysql-server/root_password password rootpasswd"
 sudo debconf-set-selections <<< "mariadb-server-$VERSION mysql-server/root_password_again password rootpasswd"
 sudo apt-get install -qq mariadb-server
+
+# Set root password to empty string.
+echo "
+USE mysql;
+UPDATE user SET Password = PASSWORD('') where User = 'root';
+FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
+" | mysql -u root -prootpasswd
+
+mysql --version
diff --git a/travis/setup-webserver.sh b/travis/setup-webserver.sh
index 6d2fe1e0..ff086588 100755
--- a/travis/setup-webserver.sh
+++ b/travis/setup-webserver.sh
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@
 # @license http://opensource.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.php GNU General Public License v2
 #
 set -e
+set -x
 
 sudo apt-get update -qq
 sudo apt-get install -qq nginx realpath