Ok, I know that MySQL is "somewhere" on my system since it is all over the place when I do a "find / -name mysql". It was placed there during the slackware 8.1 installation I guess. What do I do to get the server going? Is it already going? What the heck is going on? I need to get to the point where I can "start the server". That is where the nice new book I have on MySQL starts off. It assumes that I have someone who will initially install MySQL for me and then teach me how to do it myself later. I don't have anyone to show me though.

check /etc/init.d/mysql if that script doesn't exist ensure MySQL has been really installed ...

that script does not exist. The /etc/init.d directory does not exist either. If it is not installed then why are there files all over my nice fresh installation of slackware that have the words MySQL in them umong other things?

Just modify your find statement slightly :) for the
physical location ...

find / -iname mysql*

as for the starting: markus is
almost on the right track ;) ... just

grep -ri mysql /etc/rc.d/*

Cheers,
Tink

I think this will help point me in the right direction, thank you