/etc/my.cnf, ~/.my.cnf There are several default configurations file available in /usr/share/mysql which you can use. cp /usr/share/mysql/my-medium.cnf /etc/my.cnf We can now install a database and change the ownership to the unprivileged user and group. mysql_install_db chown -R mysql:mysql /var/lib/mysql Further configuration requires that the mysql server be running: mysqld_safe --user=mysql 2>&1 >/dev/null & A default installation does not setup a password for the administrator so here we will set one. Replace [new-password] with your own. mysqladmin -u root password [new-password] Now that we are done with the configuration of the server, we can shut it down. mysqladmin shutdown To automate the running of MySQL, use the following command to create the init.d script: cat > /etc/rc.d/init.d/mysql << "EOF" #!/bin/bash # Begin $rc_base/init.d/ # Based on sysklogd script from LFS-3.1 and earlier. # Rewritten by Gerard Beekmans - gerard@linuxfromscratch.org source /etc/sysconfig/rc source $rc_functions case "$1" in start) echo "Starting MySQL daemon..." /usr/bin/mysqld_safe --user=mysql 2>&1 >/dev/null & evaluate_retval ;; stop) echo "Stopping MySQL daemon..." killproc mysqld ;; restart) $0 stop sleep 1 $0 start ;; status) statusproc /usr/sbin/mysqld ;; *) echo "Usage: $0 {start|stop|restart|status}" exit 1 ;; esac # End $rc_base/init.d/ EOF chmod 755 /etc/rc.d/init.d/mysql Create the symbolic links to this file in the relevant rc.d directory with the following commands: cd /etc/rc.d/init.d && ln -sf ../init.d/mysql ../rc0.d/K26mysql && ln -sf ../init.d/mysql ../rc1.d/K26mysql && ln -sf ../init.d/mysql ../rc2.d/K26mysql && ln -sf ../init.d/mysql ../rc3.d/S34mysql && ln -sf ../init.d/mysql ../rc4.d/S34mysql && ln -sf ../init.d/mysql ../rc5.d/S34mysql && ln -sf ../init.d/mysql ../rc6.d/K26mysql Finally, add this entry to your ld.so.conf file so that programs which utilize MySQL can find its libraries: echo /usr/lib/mysql >> /etc/ld.so.conf