With everyone's help, I had MySQL working; I could get into that monitor program, and do things like: show databases; show tables; use <databasename>; And so on. In other words, It Was Working! Now however, it will NOT work, AND I cannot make it start! I went into YAST and tried to restart MySQL, but this only gave me an error of "Failed". What good is it, if I have to REMOVE THE WHOLE PROGRAM every time I want to use it? It was working yesterday, and now, today after starting my computer up, it is NOT working! ALSO I can't get phpMyAdmin to work; I tried to install it using YAST as someone said to do, but it didn't put anything into /usr/bin that I could run. I don't understand how it works! I did what it says at the page about phpMyAdmin, but it I get all sorts of errors about not being a server, or something. And Apache? Forget it! Check this out; this is exactly the routine I have been trying to follow to make this thing work. It did just fine the other day...I went through and tried all the ideas that everyone had given me before: ============================================= markvii@linux:~> mysql -u pampaluz -p Enter password: ERROR 2002: Can't connect to local MySQL server through socket '/var/lib/ mysql/mysql.sock' (2) markvii@linux:~> su Password: linux:/home/markvii # mysqld --standalone mysqld: ERROR: unknown variable 'innodb_data_home_dir=/var/lib/mysql/' linux:/home/markvii # /etc/init.d/mysql start Starting service MySQL failed linux:/home/markvii # /etc/init.d/mysql restart Restarting service MySQL Shutting down service mysql done Starting service MySQL failed linux:/home/markvii # rcmysql status Checking for service MySQL: unused linux:/home/markvii # chkconfig -s mysql on linux:/home/markvii # rcmysql status Checking for service MySQL: unused linux:/home/markvii # /etc/init.d/mysql start Starting service MySQL failed linux:/home/markvii # chkconfig -l mysql mysql 0:off 1:off 2:on 3:on 4:off 5:on 6:off linux:/home/markvii # ============================================= Please, I hope someone will know what to do. I mean, I had it working *once*, then it stopped, and I had to remove EVERYTHING and start over; and then I thought I had it made! It worked; up until yesterday when I was done, and I did "shutdown -h now". Today I brought up the system (actually, just a notebook computer, a Compaq Presario 906US), and MySQL won't work! It won't start, just like before when I couldn't make it work, and had to re-install. Does EVERYONE re-install, every time they want to use it? How do you make a database in a single day and get all the use from it that you need in that one day? This doesn't make sense! Thanks in advance, --Mark VII (who is considering switching back to Debian--I had no graphics, no X under Debian because I could not configure my notebook under it; but at least I had a console, and I'll bet I could get MySQL to work there, with "apt-get"!)