To install MySQL manually in Linux, see steps below:

Installing MySQL 5.5.51 on Ubuntu 16.06

1. Uninstall any existing version of MySQL

   sudo rm /var/lib/mysql/ -R

2. Delete the MySQL profile

   sudo rm /etc/mysql/ -R

3. Automatically uninstall mysql

   sudo apt-get autoremove mysql* --purge

   sudo apt-get remove apparmor

4. Download version 5.5.51 from MySQL site

   wget https://dev.mysql.com/get/Downloads/MySQL-5.5/mysql-5.5.56-linux-glibc2.5-x86_64.tar.gz

5. Add MySQL user group

   sudo groupadd mysql

6. Add MySQL (not the current user) to MySQL user group

   sudo useradd -g  mysql mysql

7. Extract mysql-5.5.51-linux2.6-x86_64.tar.gz to /usr/local

   cd /usr/local
   sudo tar -xvf mysql-5.5.49-linux2.6-x86_64.tar.gz

8. Create MySQL folder in /usr/local

   sudo mv mysql-5.5.49-linux2.6-x86_64 mysql

9. Set MySQL directory owner and user group

   cd mysql
   sudo chown -R mysql:mysql *

10. Install the required lib package

    sudo apt-get install libaio1

11. Execute MySQL installation script

    sudo scripts/mysql_install_db --user=mysql

12. Set MySQL directory owner from outside the MySQL directory

    sudo chown -R root .

13. Set data directory owner from inside MySQL directory

    sudo chown -R mysql data

14. Copy the MySQL configuration file

    sudo cp support-files/my-medium.cnf /etc/my.cnf 

15. Start MySQL

    sudo bin/mysqld_safe --user=mysql &
    sudo cp support-files/mysql.server /etc/init.d/mysql.server

16. Initialize root user password

    sudo bin/mysqladmin -u root password '111111'

17. Start MySQL server

    sudo /etc/init.d/mysql.server start

18. Stop MySQL server

    sudo /etc/init.d/mysql.server stop

19. Check status of MySQL

    sudo /etc/init.d/mysql.server status

20. Enable MySQL on startup

    sudo update-rc.d -f mysql.server defaults

21. Disable MySQL on startup (Optional)

    sudo update-rc.d -f mysql.server remove

22. Add MySQL path to the system

    sudo ln -s /usr/local/mysql/bin/mysql /usr/local/bin/mysql

23. Now directly use the command below to start mysql

    mysql -u root -p 
    

PS: One needs to reboot in order for the changes to take place.