For security reasons, running the server as an unpriviledged user and group is strongly encouraged: groupadd mysql && useradd -c mysql -d /dev/null -g mysql -s /bin/false mysql Build and install mysql by running the following commands: cp configure configure.old && sed -e "s%mysql-test/Makefile%%" -e "s% mysql-test%%" configure.old > configure && ./configure --prefix=/usr \ --sysconfdir=/etc \ --libexecdir=/usr/sbin \ --localstatedir=/var/lib/mysql \ --enable-thread-safe-client \ --without-debug \ --without-bench && make && make install