MariaDB fails to start in Github workflow

I'm building an app that needs MariaDB 10.3 for testing in a CI pipeline. I'm trying to set this up with Github actions but I'm having trouble getting MariaDB to start. The ubuntu runner includes MySQL 8.0 by default so my workflow removes that first and then installs MariaDB, but MariaDB fails to start. At first I saw this error:

2022-09-17T01:24:30.8867144Z + sudo cat /var/log/mysql/error.log
2022-09-17T01:24:30.8926847Z 2022-09-17  1:24:20 0 [ERROR] InnoDB: Invalid flags 0x4800 in ./ibdata1
2022-09-17T01:24:30.8927599Z 2022-09-17  1:24:20 0 [ERROR] InnoDB: Plugin initialization aborted with error Data structure corruption
2022-09-17T01:24:30.8928456Z 2022-09-17  1:24:21 0 [ERROR] Plugin 'InnoDB' init function returned error.
2022-09-17T01:24:30.8929215Z 2022-09-17  1:24:21 0 [ERROR] Plugin 'InnoDB' registration as a STORAGE ENGINE failed.
2022-09-17T01:24:30.8930300Z 2022-09-17  1:24:21 0 [ERROR] Unknown/unsupported storage engine: InnoDB
2022-09-17T01:24:30.8930738Z 2022-09-17  1:24:21 0 [ERROR] Aborting

I think this is because MySQL 8.0 leaves behind some old files, so I added a step to remove /var/lib/mysql but now the action stalls after the MariaDB installation.

I made a copy in a new public repo to show the issue here: https://github.com/llamafilm/mariadb_test/actions/runs/3071684353/jobs/4962586417

The workflow is like this:

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v3
      
      - name: Install dependencies
        run: |
         set -x
         sudo apt update
         sudo apt autoremove mysql*

      - name: Look around
        run: |
          set -x
          sudo ls -l /var/lib/mysql
          sudo rm -rf /var/lib/mysql

      - name: Install MariaDB
        run: |
          sudo apt install -y mariadb-server-10.3
        
      - name: Validate DB
        run: |
          set -x
          sudo cat /var/log/mysql/error.log
          sudo ls -l /var/lib/mysql
          mysql -e "SHOW STATUS"