MySQL5.1 on Debian Installation

I've been having issues installing MySQL5.1 on Debian, for the NHIN Connect port to Linux.

First I tried downloading the tarball and following the installation instructions in their INSTALL-BINARY file. One thing which needs modification is substituting useradd for adduser.

The problem, though was the installation script

script/mysql_install_db

was failing, as it could not find files. After messing with this for some time, I decided to delete everything, start over, and use the package manager:

aptitude install mysql-server

However this installed an instance of mysql without a root or mysql user. I could never authenticate against it.

Back to the tar - I'm now working on script/mysql_install_db

root>cd /usr/local/mysql
root>./scripts/mysql_install_db

FATAL ERROR: Could not find errmsg.sys

The following directories were searched:

/usr/share/english
/usr/share/mysql/english

If you compiled from source, you need to run 'make install' to
copy the software into the correct location ready for operation.

If you are using a binary release, you must either be at the top
level of the extracted archive, or pass the --basedir option
pointing to that location.

Looks as though the "you must be either at the top level of the extracted archive" part does not work, so I'll specify basedir:

root>./scripts/mysql_install_db --basedir=.
Installing MySQL system tables...
091015 9:34:03 [ERROR] ./bin/mysqld: unknown option '--skip-bdb'
091015 9:34:03 [ERROR] Aborting

091015 9:34:03 [Warning] Forcing shutdown of 2 plugins
091015 9:34:03 [Note] ./bin/mysqld: Shutdown complete


Installation of system tables failed! Examine the logs in
/var/lib/mysql for more information.

You can try to start the mysqld daemon with:

shell> ./bin/mysqld --skip-grant &

and use the command line tool ./bin/mysql
to connect to the mysql database and look at the grant tables:

shell> ./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 are the
MySQL email archives available at http://lists.mysql.com/.

Please check all of the above before mailing us! And remember, if
you do mail us, you MUST use the ./scripts/mysqlbug script!

Ok, two oddities here.

1) I didn't specify --skip-bdb
2) /var/lib/mysql has no logs

The "Installation of mysql tables" message is from the script, the rest is from mysqld.

I modified the script to output its options and found these:

./bin/mysqld --language=./share/english --bootstrap --basedir=. --datadir=/var/lib/mysql --log-warnings=0 --loose-skip-innodb --loose-skip-ndbcluster --user=mysql --max_allowed_packet=8M --default-storage-engine=myisam --net_buffer_length=16K

So where is --skip-bdb coming from. After investigating, I found a global configuration file, my.cnf, which can specify options. It can be found in a number of places:

/etc/my.cnf
/etc/mysql/my.cnf
SYSCONFDIR/my.cnf
$MYSQL_HOME/my.cnf
defaults-extra-file
~/.my.cnf

Found one in /etc/mysql

#
# * BerkeleyDB
#
# Using BerkeleyDB is now discouraged as its support will cease in 5.1.12.
skip-bdb
#

So I commented out skip-bdb, and the script worked.

I finished out the installation instructions and started mysqld using

mysqld_safe --user=mysql

but it exited right away.

Nothing useful in the log, so I added the -log option:

091015 10:23:20 [Warning] The syntax '--log' is deprecated and will be removed in MySQL 7.0. Please use '--general_log'/'--general_log_file' instead.
091015 10:23:20 [ERROR] Can't find messagefile '/usr/share/mysql/english/errmsg.sys'

So I added a symbolic link to the missing dir

ln -s /usr/local/mysql/share /usr/share/mysql

restarted, and its running now. Wahoo!