070311 20:38:22 [Note] /home/sbester/server/5.1/mysql-5.1.17-beta-linux-i686/bin/mysqld: ready for connections.
Version: '5.1.17-beta-debug'  socket: '/tmp/mysql.sock'  port: 3306  yes
070311 20:41:13 - mysqld got signal 6;
This could be because you hit a bug. It is also possible that this binary
or one of the libraries it was linked against is corrupt, improperly built,
or misconfigured. This error can also be caused by malfunctioning hardware.
We will try our best to scrape up some info that will hopefully help diagnose
the problem, but since we have already crashed, something is definitely wrong
and this may fail.

key_buffer_size=8388600
read_buffer_size=131072
max_used_connections=1
max_threads=151
threads_connected=1
It is possible that mysqld could use up to 
key_buffer_size + (read_buffer_size + sort_buffer_size)*max_threads = 337601 K
bytes of memory
Hope that's ok; if not, decrease some variables in the equation.

thd: 0x8ea4cc0
Attempting backtrace. You can use the following information to find out
where mysqld died. If you see no messages after this, something went
terribly wrong...
Cannot determine thread, fp=0x42741bb4, backtrace may not be correct.
Stack range sanity check OK, backtrace follows:
0x8221499 handle_segfault + 541
0xffffe410 _end + -143106752
0x400edb75 _end + 931615909
0x401207aa _end + 931823834
0x40126007 _end + 931846455
0x40127d18 _end + 931853896
0x401295b4 _end + 931860196
0x85976d1 my_malloc + 129
0x839a1b1 mysql_init + 35
0x83e402c _ZN12ha_federated4openEPKcij + 186
0x8303547 _ZN7handler7ha_openEP8st_tablePKcii + 261
0x8273df7 _Z21open_table_from_shareP3THDP14st_table_sharePKcjjjP8st_tableb + 2009
0x8269baa _Z17open_unireg_entryP3THDP8st_tableP13st_table_listPKcPcjP11st_mem_rootj + 1502
0x82682e7 _Z10open_tableP3THDP13st_table_listP11st_mem_rootPbj + 2471
0x8269fa5 _Z11open_tablesP3THDPP13st_table_listPjj + 559
0x826a7d8 _Z30open_normal_and_derived_tablesP3THDP13st_table_listj + 174
0x8361718 _Z18mysqld_show_createP3THDP13st_table_list + 230
0x822fcd8 _Z21mysql_execute_commandP3THD + 7622
0x823729b _Z11mysql_parseP3THDPcj + 299
0x822c8d5 _Z16dispatch_command19enum_server_commandP3THDPcj + 1965
0x822c11c _Z10do_commandP3THD + 612
0x822acf7 handle_one_connection + 253
0x4004daa7 _end + 930960343
0x4017ec2e _end + 932210014
New value of fp=(nil) failed sanity check, terminating stack trace!
Please read http://dev.mysql.com/doc/mysql/en/using-stack-trace.html and follow instructions on how to resolve the stack trace. Resolved
stack trace is much more helpful in diagnosing the problem, so please do 
resolve it
Trying to get some variables.
Some pointers may be invalid and cause the dump to abort...
thd->query at 0x8eb3800 = show create table aaaaaaa.bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb
thd->thread_id=2
The manual page at http://www.mysql.com/doc/en/Crashing.html contains
information that should help you find out what is causing the crash.
sbester@www:~/server/5.1/mysql-5.1.17-beta-linux-i686>