diff --git a/scripts/mysql_install_db.sh b/scripts/mysql_install_db.sh
index 5fc60567e11..eec985396c4 100644
--- a/scripts/mysql_install_db.sh
+++ b/scripts/mysql_install_db.sh
@@ -24,7 +24,6 @@ builddir=""
 ldata="@localstatedir@"
 langdir=""
 srcdir=""
-log_error=""
 
 args=""
 defaults=""
@@ -557,12 +556,20 @@ else
   filter_cmd_line="cat"
 fi
 
-# Disable log error if the user don't have write access to the directory.
-# This is common when a user tries to install a personal mariadbd server
-if test -n $log_error
+# Disable log error if the user don't have right to write/create the file
+# This is common when a user tries to install a personal mariadbd server and
+# the global config in /etc is using --log-error.
+# The server will internally change log-error to stderr to stderr if it cannot
+# write the the log file. This code only disables the error message from a not
+# writable log-error, which can be confusing.
+if test -n "$log_error"
 then
-    if test ! -w $log_error
+    if test \( -e "$log_error" -a \! -w "$log_error" \) -o \( ! -e "$log_error" -a ! -w "`dirname "$log_error"`" \)
     then
+        if test -n "$verbose"
+        then
+            echo "resetting log-error '$log_error' because no write access"
+        fi
         log_error=""
         args="$args --skip-log-error"
     fi
diff --git a/storage/innobase/buf/buf0flu.cc b/storage/innobase/buf/buf0flu.cc
index 569096377c0..0072d0c22b8 100644
--- a/storage/innobase/buf/buf0flu.cc
+++ b/storage/innobase/buf/buf0flu.cc
@@ -2419,7 +2419,6 @@ static void buf_flush_page_cleaner()
       break;
 
     const ulint dirty_blocks= UT_LIST_GET_LEN(buf_pool.flush_list);
-    ut_ad(dirty_blocks);
     /* We perform dirty reads of the LRU+free list lengths here.
     Division by zero is not possible, because buf_pool.flush_list is
     guaranteed to be nonempty, and it is a subset of buf_pool.LRU. */