MySQL 5.

0 installation
Since Apache and MySQL servers must be installed prior to the PHP installation, I recommend installing the triad in this order: MySQL, Apache, PHP. You may well have some MySQL server already installed in that case you can skip directly to the Apache 2 installation. However, its a good idea to reinstall everything, in order to have the most recent versions of the software. There are several options for how to install MySQL: using YaST the easiest and fastest way. However, the version of MySQL bundled with SuSE installation is usually NOT the best (i.e. the most recent) available, RPM installation supposedly also fast and simple, Ive never tried though. The only drawback here is that MySQL is not installed into a single destination its scattered across several directories. I like to keep things tidy, so I skipped this option, installing binaries downloading precompiled files from the mysql.com website, copying them into a directory of your choice, and doing some simple configuration. I tried this, but it didnt work for me for some reason the MySQL server wouldnt start, installing from source I would recommend this. Yes, it takes some time and effort, but you will get the most recent MySQL installed in a single location on your system, and everything will be configured according to your needs. The rest of this chapter deals with the 4th option the installation of MySQL from the source.

Prerequisites
Make sure you have superuser (root) privileges and user mysql already exists in your system. If not, create one:

1 groupadd mysql 2 useradd -g mysql mysql

This will be the default user under which the MySQL server will be running.

Download the source

First, download the MySQL source . You need the mysql-5.1.52-linux-i686glibc23.tar.gz tarball file (or mysql-5.1.52-linux-x86_64-glibc23.tar.gz for 64-bit systems).

Unpack, configure, compile

So you have downloaded the mysql-5.1.52-linux-i686-glibc23.tar.gz file. You know the drill: unpack, configure, make, make install:.

1 tar -xzf mysql-5.1.52-linux-i686-glibc23.tar.gz 2 cd mysql-5.1.52-linux-i686-glibc23/ ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/mysql-5.1.52 --with3 charset=utf8 --with-collation=utf8_general_ci 4 make

5 make install
We used the with-charset and with-collation options to set the default character set and collation otherwise it would have been the default Swedish collation. I recommend creating a symbolic link called mysql pointing to the MySQL installation directory, in order to make referring to it from elsewhere easier:

1 ln -s /usr/local/mysql-5.1.52/ /usr/local/mysql
This way we can always refer to MySQL installation directory as /usr/local/mysql . The obvious advantage is that if you install PHP with the with-mysql=/usr/local/mysql option (see PHP 5 Installation Guide), it wont stop working if the name of the MySQL installation directory changes in the future (if you upgrade your MySQL for instance).

Create my.cnf file

To complete MySQL server installation, you have to create a configuration file. It offers several security and control options (here you can limit system resources to be used by MySQL server, set the default collation and character set etc.). You need not to create a brand new configuration file there are 4 pre-made files in the support-files/ directory. Read the information in those files to determine which one to use. For small servers (e.g. testing servers, or servers of a limited performance), my-small.cnf file is the best option. Copy the file of your choice to /etc/my.cnf:

1 cp support-files/my-small.cnf /etc/my.cnf 2 chown root /etc/my.cnf 3 chgrp root /etc/my.cnf 4 chmod 644 /etc/my.cnf
We have made sure both the owner and user group of the my.cnf file are root and the access privileges are properly set. Finally edit the file:

1 vi /etc/my.cnf
Search for [mysqld] clause, and add immediately below it:

1 user = mysql
We have specified that MySQL service is to be run with user mysql privileges. If you want to use InnoDB databases (what you probably will), uncomment (and perhaps edit) all innodb options in the my.cnf file. Save all changes (<ESC> :wq).

Additional settings
For proper functioning, MySQL needs a mysql database. To create this database, simply run:

1 /usr/local/mysql/bin/mysql_install_db --user=mysql
The script will create /usr/local/mysql/var/ directory containing the necessary databases. This directory serves as a default storage for all databases you will create. Make sure it is writable by mysql system user!

Start server, check it, connect

Now you are ready to start your MySQL server for the first time.

1 /usr/local/mysql/bin/mysqld_safe --user=mysql &

Hit enter again to get your prompt back. The MySQL server should now be running. To check that server is running and works properly enter

1 /usr/local/mysql/bin/mysqladmin version
You should get some response about the server software version. Connect to MySQL server:

1 /usr/local/mysql/bin/mysql -u root
If you get a welcome message and the prompt changes to mysql>, the server works and everything is fine. If this failed for any reason, it may indicate some problems with your installation/configuration.

Set the root password

Now, before you do anything else, set root users password (!). Stay connected to MySQL and enter:

1 DELETE FROM mysql.user WHERE User = ''; 2 FLUSH PRIVILEGES; 3 SELECT Host, User FROM mysql.user;
Look for the record that has root in the User column and something other than localhost in the Host column. This is the host_name.

SET PASSWORD FOR 'root'@'localhost' = PASSWORD('new_password'); SET PASSWORD FOR 'root'@'host_name' = 2 PASSWORD('new_password'); 1
Remember, this is the MySQL superuser for all databases. Therefore you should use a strong password and keep it safe. Later, when you will be writing PHP scripts, do NOT use superuser for accessing databases! The root user is meant only for administration purposes. After you are finished, exit MySQL:

1 quit

Restart MySQL server

After everything is set up, restart MySQL server:

1 /usr/local/mysql/bin/mysqladmin -u root -p shutdown 2 /usr/local/mysql/bin/mysqld_safe --user=mysql &

Voila, your MySQL server is up and running!

Automatic startup
Set up an automatic startup so you dont need to start MySQL server manually after each system reboot. Go back to the directory where you extracted the downloaded mysql tarball file. Enter

1 cp support-files/mysql.server /etc/init.d/mysql 2 chmod 755 /etc/init.d/mysql 3 chkconfig --add mysql 4 chkconfig --level 35 mysql on