So we tested the 5.6.7-RC. And ran into a strange problem:

Because of a test, a preexisting configuration with GTID enabled existed, and suddenly we did not have properly initialized grants in mysql.* created for a new installation. Turns out: GTID and non-transactional tables are no friends, and that is even documented.

When using GTIDs, updates to tables using nontransactional storage engines such as MyISAM are not supported. This is because updates to such tables mixed with updates to tables that use a transactional storage engine such as InnoDB can result in multiple GTIDs being assigned to the same transaction.

Also, this is supposed to work with GRANT and REVOKE, but not with INSERT and DELETE. Now guess what mysql-install-db and friends are using?

server:~ # less /usr/share/mysql/mysql_system_tables_data.sql
...
INSERT INTO tmp_user VALUES ('localhost','root','',...);

This is a larger problem: We are supposed to use GRANT and REVOKE, but many people are using INSERT and DELETE in mysql.* all of the time, and so do many applications. And the mysql.* tables are MyISAM, and always have been (except that nowadays there is a wild mix of CSV and InnoDB tables in there as well).

MySQL cannot really ship GTID as a feature with MyISAM-tables in mysql.* and expect that to work anywhere. This is all very extremely broken and needs urgent fixing.

This is now support-case SR 3-6270525721: "MySQL 5.6.7-rc1, grants, replication and GTID cause problems" and will also soon have a bug number. And, no, fixing the mysql_system_tables_data.sql is not really removing the problem here.