Disable MySQL startup in Ubuntu 10.04

sudo vim /etc/init/mysql.conf

Edit it to say the following (I move the 2 from the first set of numbers to the second):

start on (net-device-up and local-filesystems and runlevel [345])
stop on runlevel[0126]

 

For details, refer to http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1475460&page=2