Standard MySQL 5.5 installation on debian using dotdeb
On debian the fastest way to setup MySQL 5.5 is just the following:
nano /etc/apt/sources.list
# for mysql 5.5
deb http://packages.dotdeb.org stable all
deb-src http://packages.dotdeb.org stable all
wget http://www.dotdeb.org/dotdeb.gpg
cat dotdeb.gpg | apt-key add -
apt-get update
apt-get install mysql-server-5.5
Now check your phpMyAdmin or similar management tool to see if the correct version is being reported (or use mysql -v).