Variable 'general_log_file' can't be set to the value of '/var/lib/msyql/ubuntu.log'

Solution 1:

ERROR 1231 (42000): Variable 'general_log_file' can't be set to the value of '/var/lib/msyql/ubuntu.log'

What's going on?

The simple answer is this file doesn't exist.

You type too fast. There is a typo in the file name, it should be /var/lib/mysql/ubuntu.log.

Solution 2:

I know this is a very old answer, but just in case someone else will be looking for an answer here.

In my case - the problem was in permissions that wasn't correct on the destination folder.