MySQL Bugs: #31889: Cannot start MySQL from System Preferences

Bug #31889	Cannot start MySQL from System Preferences
Submitted:	26 Oct 2007 18:57	Modified:	14 Mar 2008 18:31
Reporter:	Matthew Brady	Email Updates:
Status:	Duplicate	Impact on me:	None
Category:	MySQL GUI Common	Severity:	S2 (Serious)
Version:	5.0.41	OS:	MacOS (10.5)
Assigned to:		CPU Architecture:	Any
Tags:	10.5, leopard, system preferences

Description:
I recently installed leopard and have had a problem starting and stopping mysql via the system preferences pane. I will click "Start MySQL Server" and OS X will prompt me for my administrator password, yet it will not start/stop the actual server. I have yet to try this on the most recent mysql release.

How to repeat:
Try to start and stop mysql via System Preferences on Mac OS X Leopard

Thank you for a problem report. Please, try to repeat with a newer version, 5.0.45, and inform about the results.

I have the exact same issue on OSX Leopard (10.5) using MySQL 5.0.45.

I can confirm that MySQL will start from the command line using:

sudo /usr/local/mysql/bin/mysqld_safe --user=mysql &

But the service will not start from the applet in System Preferences.

Its far worse on PPC running Leopard.  I've tried 5.0.41 and 5.1.x - whether .tar or package, each is failing.  Permissions are not being set correctly and getting mysqld running is a real joyride of pain. After 2 reinstalls of Leopard and around 11 installs of mysql i am forced to roll back to another machine as running mysql on Leopard on PPC can NOT be considered ready at this point in time.

Seems like there is more fun.... MySQL tools are flakey on Leopard, particularly with InnoDB editing and table manipulation.  This caused the MySQL admin tools to crash.

Is this perhaps because Leopard uses "_mysql" as the user, and the Preference Pane is using "mysql"?

For the sake of convenience, one can add these two lines to ~/.profile to more easily start/stop MySQL until this bug is fixed.

alias start_mysql='sudo /usr/local/mysql/bin/mysqld_safe &'
alias stop_mysql='mysqladmin shutdown -uroot -p'

Start requires sudo password, stop requires root mysql password.

Sorry, forgot to quickly mention how to use the above lines (for those who might not know).  Just open Terminal and type:

% stop_mysql 
Enter password: (Enter your MySQL Root password here)
% start_mysql 
Enter password: (Enter your OS X password here, you must be an Administrator)

"Is this perhaps because Leopard uses "_mysql" as the user, and the Preference Pane is
using "mysql"?"

No, I don't think so, but it is something related.  Starting mysqld from the command line fails also: 

$ mysqld
071106 18:29:15 [Warning] Can't create test file /usr/local/mysql-5.0.41-osx10.4-i686/data/qubit.lower-test
071106 18:29:15 [Warning] Can't create test file /usr/local/mysql-5.0.41-osx10.4-i686/data/qubit.lower-test
071106 18:29:15  InnoDB: Operating system error number 13 in a file operation.
InnoDB: The error means mysqld does not have the access rights to
InnoDB: the directory.
InnoDB: File name ./ibdata1
InnoDB: File operation call: 'open'.
InnoDB: Cannot continue operation.

Also, the same thing happens for 5.0.45...

$ mysqld
071106 18:38:44 [Warning] Can't create test file /usr/local/mysql-5.0.45-osx10.4-i686/data/qubit.lower-test
071106 18:38:44 [Warning] Can't create test file /usr/local/mysql-5.0.45-osx10.4-i686/data/qubit.lower-test
mysqld: Can't change dir to '/usr/local/mysql-5.0.45-osx10.4-i686/data/' (Errcode: 13)
071106 18:38:44 [ERROR] Aborting

071106 18:38:44 [Note] mysqld: Shutdown complete

If you look at the _mysql user and group with dscl, they have 2 values for RecordName: _mysql and mysql. I deleted the RecordName _mysql on each and did sudo chown -R mysql /usr/local/mysql/data and automatic startup in the preference pane now works, although the start/stop button still doesn't work.

Instead of manually starting MySQL between reboots, use launchd, as outlined here:
http://blog.tomatocheese.com/archives/2007/11/1/migrating_mysql_to_mac_os_x_leopard/

No feedback was provided for this bug for over a month, so it is
being suspended automatically. If you are able to provide the
information that was originally requested, please do so and change
the status of the bug back to "Open".

Any news on this one?

Thank you for the report and feedback.

I'll mark this as duplicate of bug #25008 and 28854 which are fixed and will be available in next release.