These instructions are for MySQL 4.1 on our Debian 3.1 system.

Install MySQL along with its pre-requisites:

apt-get install mysql-common-4.1 libmysqlclient12 libmysqlclient14
apt-get install mysql-client-4.1 libdbd-mysql-perl libdbi-perl libnet-daemon-perl libplrpc-perl
apt-get install mysql-server-4.1

This last one will show you some hints. Hit 'Ok'.

TODO: Would like to do this, but the doc package is nowhere to be found in the repositories or Debian's web site. It's supposed to be in the non-free section. I haven't looked too hard for it there.

apt-get install mysql-doc-4.1

NOTE: In the following instructions, replace $MYSQL_ROOT with the actual password.

Set the password for MySQL root user. (If this doesn't work, rename you .my.cnf file temporarily and try again).

# /usr/bin/mysqladmin -u root password '$MYSQL_ROOT'

Create the MySQL configuration file, and make sure nobody else can read it:

# touch ~/.my.cnf
# chmod 0600 ~/.my.cnf

Edit the file to set the password when using various client programs:

[mysql]
user     = 'root'
password = '$MYSQL_ROOT' # THIS IS NOT THE REAL PASSWORD; DO NOT CUT AND PASTE THIS!
 
[mysqladmin]
user     = 'root'
password = '$MYSQL_ROOT' # THIS IS NOT THE REAL PASSWORD; DO NOT CUT AND PASTE THIS!

I wanted to install mysql-doc package too, but it doesn't seem to exist in Sarge.

The Debian installation creates a MySQL user named "debian-sys-maint". This MySQL account is used in the start/stop and cron scripts. Don't delete it.

See /usr/share/doc/mysql-server/README.Debian for more information.

Not sure if we need to set a password on the "debian-sys-maint" account, or anything else like that. The Debian docs don't say anything about it, so I suppose we're OK.

Could probably use some tuning and routine maintenance.

Backups.

Initially installed, configured, and documented by Craig Buchek, 2005-02-23.