/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 -p shutdown Install /etc/rc.d/init.d/mysql init script included in the package. make install-mysql