/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] && mysqladmin -p flush-privileges Now that we are done with the configuration of the server, we can shut it down. mysqladmin -p 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