Nirmal Jayasinghe

I was doing some work regarding accessing and manipulating databases using PHP [Personal Home Pages]. Actually in the lab it was quite fun, cause the database management system we were using, MySQL, was properly setup in those lab computers. But the real fun was at home. I of course had XAMPP installed, with Apache, PHP and MySQL, but I was having some difficulty in invoking MySQL client.

Windows story

Well this is what happened in Windows. I had XAMPP installed, as I said earlier, since I started work in PHP in October 2005. XAMPP has it’s own method of starting up MySQL, but afterwards it’s impossible to connect to the MySQL client over command line. It’s annoying enough. So I tried installing MySQL separately in C:\ using install media, but it didn’t work either. This was a permissions problem, for sure, and I had a bursting amount of assignments to do. So I did it quick way: logged into a lab computer, dragged the whole MySQL folder from C:\ to my flash disk, and dragged it back ashore on my home computer’s My Documents folder. Now it’s a breeze. I cd to My Documents, say ‘mysqld start’ (opeeen sesame!), and then MySQL works without any complaint. Yeah I know it’s a bit un-sporty and ‘dirty’ quick-fix, but I didn’t have any other choice for the time being. I’m not very sure as what happened, but I’m looking into it. If someone has an idea, of course you’re very welcome to leave a helpful comment. I just can’t bear going through obscure MySQL documentation.

Can’t understand XAMPP MySQL installation’s permissions problem. I had installed WordPress lately and it had no problem connecting and writing to the MySQL database. Wonder how.

Linux story

With Linux, ahh it’s a different story. Got Red Hat 9 so MySQL and PHP come prepackaged. Installed. OK ready to rock. Hmm.. mysql, what?? the client doesn’t even start up. OH, it hasn’t been started. Hadn’t had much experience with MySQL in Linux so turn to the Lanka Linux User Group. Got an entire Gmail account dedicated to their mailing list. Got some useful help. But not right bang on point. So do a search with *mysql* on my PC, get all the locations and here’s a screendump of what happened:

[astdb@localhost astdb]$ cd /etc/rc.d/init.d
[astdb@localhost init.d]$ ls
aep1000 crond iptables lisa ntpd saslauthd syslog
anacron cups irda mysqld pcmcia sendmail tux
apmd firstboot isdn netfs portmap single winbind
atd functions kdcrotate network postgresql snmpd xfs
autofs gpm keytable nfs random snmptrapd xinetd
bcm5820 halt killall nfslock rawdevices squid ypbind
canna httpd kudzu nscd rhnsd sshd
[astdb@localhost init.d]$ mysqld
bash: mysqld: command not found
[astdb@localhost init.d]$ sh mysqld
Usage: mysqld {start|stop|status|condrestart|restart}
[astdb@localhost init.d]$ sh mysqld start
touch: creating `/var/log/mysqld.log’: Permission denied
chmod: changing permissions of `/var/log/mysqld.log’: Operation not permitted
Initializing MySQL database: mkdir: Preparing db table
cannot create directory `/var/lib/mysql/mysql’: Permission denied
chmod: failed to get attributes of `/var/lib/mysql/mysql’: No such file or direc
tory
mkdir: cannot create directory `/var/lib/mysql/test’: Permission denied
chmod: failed to get attributes of `/var/lib/mysql/test’: No such file or direct
ory
Preparing host table
Preparing user table
Preparing func table
Preparing tables_priv table
Preparing columns_priv table
Installing all prepared tables
ERROR: 1049 Unknown database ‘mysql’
Installation of grant tables failed!

Examine the logs in /var/lib/mysql for more information.
You can also try to start the mysqld daemon with:
/usr/libexec/mysqld –skip-grant &
You can use the command line tool
/usr/bin/mysql to connect to the mysql
database and look at the grant tables:

shell> /usr/bin/mysql -u root mysql
mysql> show tables

Try ‘mysqld –help’ if you have problems with paths. Using –log
gives you a log in /var/lib/mysql that may be helpful.

The latest information about MySQL is available on the web at
http://www.mysql.com
Please consult the MySQL manual section: ‘Problems running mysql_install_db’,
and the manual section that describes problems on your OS.
Another information source is the MySQL email archive.
Please check all of the above before mailing us!
And if you do mail us, you MUST use the /usr/bin/mysqlbug script!
061224 22:18:02 Aborting

061224 22:18:02 /usr/libexec/mysqld: Shutdown Complete

[FAILED]
[astdb@localhost init.d]$ cd /usr/bin
[astdb@localhost bin]$ mysql
ERROR 2002: Can’t connect to local MySQL server through socket ‘/var/lib/mysql/m
ysql.sock’ (2)
[astdb@localhost bin]$

The point is I cannot use MySQL other than as a superuser [su] or root in Linux. MySQL can be started and used as root or superuser. I usually use Linux as a normal user, exercising root/superuser privileges only for system administration purposes. If anybody has an idea about how to configure MySQL to use as a normal user in Linux, please leave a comment. Thanks.