Ubuntu 20.04 weird problems on mariadb-server-10.3 upgrade

I have just performed a dist-upgrade on ubuntu 20.04 server and got stuck on mariadb-server-10.3

The apt process hung on this package and after 20 minutes waiting I have killed the process. After that, I checked mariadb and it was running with v. 10.3 but apt is still claiming for configuration:

dpkg --configure -a
Setting up mariadb-server-10.3 (1:10.3.29-0ubuntu0.20.04.1)

Hanging forever. But if I check installed packages, I get this:

dpkg -l | grep maria*
ii  mariadb-client-10.3                  1:10.3.29-0ubuntu0.20.04.1                 amd64        MariaDB database client binaries
ii  mariadb-client-core-10.3             1:10.3.29-0ubuntu0.20.04.1                 amd64        MariaDB database core client binaries
ii  mariadb-common                       1:10.3.29-0ubuntu0.20.04.1                 all          MariaDB common metapackage
iU  mariadb-server                       1:10.3.29-0ubuntu0.20.04.1                 all          MariaDB database server (metapackage depending on the latest version)
iF  mariadb-server-10.3                  1:10.3.29-0ubuntu0.20.04.1                 amd64        MariaDB database server binaries
ii  mariadb-server-core-10.3             1:10.3.29-0ubuntu0.20.04.1                 amd64        MariaDB database core server files

It won't be a problem, except that from now on, every time I need to update a package/system I going through this hanging problem:

    dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of mariadb-server:
 mariadb-server depends on mariadb-server-10.3 (>= 1:10.3.29-0ubuntu0.20.04.1); however:
  Package mariadb-server-10.3 is not configured yet.

dpkg: error processing package mariadb-server (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
Errors were encountered while processing:
 mariadb-server-10.3
 mariadb-server

How to fix?

I had to the existing mysql-server on the server. This is because I have no need for MySQL on the server

sudo systemctl stop mysql
sudo apt purge mysql-server mysql-client mysql-common mysql-server-core-* mysql-client-core-*
sudo rm -rf /etc/mysql /var/lib/mysql /var/log/mysql
sudo apt autoremove
sudo apt autoclean

Then I re-installed MariaDB Server

To install

sudo apt update
sudo apt install mariadb-server

To setup

sudo mysql_secure_installation

I had to reinstall to fix. Obviously if you can do a backup first, do one!

sudo apt remove mariadb-server mariadb-server-10.3 mariadb-server-core-10.3 mariadb-client mariadb-client-10.3 mariadb-client-core-10.3 mariadb-common

Note: I didn't have to restore any of my databases. I saw the following message while running the command above:
dpkg: warning: while removing mariadb-server-core-10.3, directory '/usr/share/mysql' not empty so not removed

So if you want to do a backup, which you should there are no excuses, you can do so from ('/var/lib/mysql') the your databases should be stored.

Reinstall/restore MariaDB:
sudo apt install mariadb-server mariadb-client