MySQL Startup Guide

MySQL Installation

First make sure you have MySQL installed on your system. In case you need specific functionality from MySQL, please make sure you have the required USE flags enabled as they will help fine tune your installation.

(View available USE flags)
# emerge --pretend --verbose mysql
(Install MySQL)
# emerge mysql

Upon completion of the installation, you will see the following notice:

You might want to run:
"ebuild /var/db/pkg/dev-db/mysql-[version]/mysql-[version].ebuild config"
if this is a new install.

Since this is a new installation, we run the command. You need to press ENTER when prompted while configuring the MySQL database. The configuration sets up the main MySQL database which contains administrative information such as databases, tables, users, permissions and more. The configuration recommends that you change your root password as soon as possible. We will definitely do this, otherwise someone could come along by chance and hack our default setup MySQL server.

# ebuild /var/db/pkg/dev-db/mysql-[version]/mysql-[version].ebuild config
 * MySQL DATADIR is /var/lib/mysql
 * Press ENTER to create the mysql database and set proper
 * permissions on it, or Control-C to abort now...

   Preparing db table
   Preparing host table
   Preparing user table
   Preparing func table
   Preparing tables_priv table
   Preparing columns_priv table
   Installing all prepared tables

   To start mysqld at boot time you have to copy support-files/mysql.server
   to the right place for your system

   PLEASE REMEMBER TO SET A PASSWORD FOR THE MySQL root USER !
   To do so, issue the following commands to start the server
   and change the applicable passwords:
(Note the next 3 lines)
   /etc/init.d/mysql start
   /usr/bin/mysqladmin -u root -h pegasos password 'new-password'
   /usr/bin/mysqladmin -u root password 'new-password'
   Depending on your configuration, a -p option may be needed
   in the last command. See the manual for more details.

(Some MySQL non-ebuild specific information has been removed from here
so as to keep this document as consistent as possible)

   * For security reasons you should set your MySQL root
   * password as soon as possible.

As of mysql-4.0.24-r2, passwords are entered during the config phase making root password entry more secure.

The config script has already printed out the commands we need to run to setup our password, so we shall now run them.

# /etc/init.d/mysql start
 * Re-caching dependency info (mtimes differ)...
 * Starting mysqld (/etc/mysql/my.cnf) ...        [ ok ]
(Replace new-password with your desired password)
# /usr/bin/mysqladmin -u root -h localhost password 'new-password'

You can now test that your root password was successfully configured by trying to login to your MySQL server:

$ mysql -u root -h localhost -p
Enter password:
Welcome to the MySQL monitor. Commands end with ; or \g.
Your MySQL connection id is 4 to server version: 4.0.24-debug

Type 'help;' or '\h' for help. Type '\c' to clear the buffer.

mysql>

The -u switch sets the user that will be logging in. The -h switch sets the host. This will usually be localhost unless you are setting up a remote server. Finally, -p tells the mysql client that you will be entering a password to access your database. Notice the mysql> prompt. This is where you type in all your commands. Now that we're in the mysql prompt as the root user, we can begin to setup our database.