mySQL/Panther woes - "Can't open privilege tables"

[imbrokn]

I've been installing mySQL on my installion of OSX every since I've had 10.1 on installed. I've just recently tried to upgrade it on my upgraded panther OS, but haven't had any luck getting the service started. I know that panther does come with installed but I wanted to installed the newest verions, so i donwloaded the pkg file from mysql.com. I've followed the instructions on entropy.ch for upgrading the mysql install, and after a few errors, i've finally gotten to one that I can't seem to resolve. I try starting the service like this:
shell > mysqld_safe --user=mysql

the result is that the service never starts, and the .err file in my data/ folder is:
"Fatal Error: Can't open privilege tables: Table 'mysql.host' doesn't exist"

I've run the the mysql_fix_privilege_tables, thinking that this would fix it, but that only seems to work when the service is running? Can anyone help me out here?

Just for some added information, the mysql account that initially was installed, was modified my Apple during an upgrade, setting both the Shell and HomeDir to /dev/null I've updated these attributes, but still to no avail.

I also noticed that in /usr/local/bin there are some mysql binaries, including a mysqld, are these where apple installs its version of mysql? I can't seem to start it up from here either though.

[elander]

Something happens if you just update, or archive and install Panther, that prevents the 4.1.1 alpha version from starting up properly.

As the story goes, a clean install of Panther shouldn't have this problem, but I've been too lazy to check. I will have to do it later this week though, since I need the subselect feature in 4.1.

If you don't need the features in the alpha version, stick with 4.0xx versions. They should install and run without problems. If they don't, run Disk Utility and repair permissions on your startup drive.

As for "/usr/local/bin", that is where the standard install from MySQL AB ends up. Panther doesn't come with MySQL installed in the client version, only the Server. The only thing done in preparatioin for MySQL in the client version of Panther is that you have a user account called "mysql", so you don't have to create one yourself.

[bob@bomar.us]

By default, MySQL Wants to use /var/db/mysql as the database directory. You can over ride this with:

--data-dir=/path/to/mysql

Ex:

87582 p2- IW 0:00.00 /bin/sh /usr/local/bin/safe_mysqld --user=mysql --datadir=/usr/mysql --pid-file=/usr/mysql/dakota.pid
87605 p2- S 0:01.55 /usr/local/libexec/mysqld --basedir=/usr/local --datadir=/usr/mysql --user=mysql --pid-file=/usr/mysql/dakota.pid

[imbrokn]

I did the "Repair Permissions" seems to have fixed this problem for me. I also installed the standard version 4.0.18 as opposed to the "Max" version. Whatever it was, I thank you both for your time.