[TriLUG] starting mysqld

[Aaron S. Joyner]

jason watts wrote:

> ok,
>
> i tried getting the version with,   yourpath/mysqladmin version
>
> saying it cannot connect to the mysql server
>
> i tried doing it the gui way, and i got mysqld dead but subsys locked.
>
> did a very quick google, and came up with /etc/init.d/mysqld start
>
> when i run that (as root) i get the lines
>
> chown: 'mysql:mysql': invalid user
> chown: 'mysql:mysql': invalid user
> Timeout error occurred trying to start mysql daemon.
> Starting mysql         [FAILED]
>
> (the output was handtyped, but acurate other than spaceing and 
> capitilization)
>
> so, do i need to add a mysql user to the system? or is this refering 
> to the mysql user that comes in mysql?  or is it just something else 
> completly different

There's not quite a lot of information on how you got to where you are 
with this system, but as a first blush answer, I'll guess that you 
installed mysql from source, but you didn't create a user and group 
(mysql, mysql, respectively) for it to run as.  You can probably remedy 
this with 'useradd mysql && groupadd mysql' on most distros.

> also, has anyone else had so many problems trying to figure out how to 
> set up mysql before?

 Yes, lots of people have had horrendous problems setting up all manner 
of open source packages.  :)  This usually stems from not having a solid 
understanding of the system itself, some basic bash programming skills, 
and generally being out of their element (most people don't have a lot 
of experience in a *NIX environment).  The good news is that Linux 
distributions come with tools to make the learning curve easier, and in 
a lot of cases make it so you don't even need most of these skills.  
Your best bet for getting MySQL up and running with the least amount of 
effort is to stick with the distribution packaging tools.  Commands like 
`apt-get install mysql-server`, `yum install mysql`, `up2date mysql`, 
etc are definitely simpler and more foolproof than the "wget http://... 
&& ./configure && make install # then tweak to your system" route.  
Having said that though, if you really want to understand the system and 
the tools well, installing from source is a fantastic learning 
experience, and will teach you a lot along the way.  It's a good first 
step towards being a system administrator.

> .... does my question make any sence?

Your question does make sense, but it doesn't have quite enough 
background information to answer it thoroughly or with any confidence in 
the accuracy of the answer.  How did you setup mysql?  What system are 
you setting it up on?  We don't need command-by-command instructions of 
what you did (although if it's short, it doesn't hurt), but a rough 
overview of those two variables can go a long way towards providing a 
better answer.  The classic link here would be:
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html#beprecise

Aaron S. Joyner