I am trying to get the mysql daemon running under slack 9.1. Ive tried becoming the mysql superuser and creating the database, like so:

su mysql
mysql_install_db

But whenever I do this, here is what I see:

Preparing db table
Preparing host table
Preparing user table
Preparing func table
Preparing tables_priv table
Preparing columns_priv table
Installing all prepared tables
ERROR: 1 Can't create/write to file './mysql/db.frm' (Errcode: 13)
ERROR: 1 Can't create/write to file './mysql/db.frm' (Errcode: 13)
ERROR: 1 Can't create/write to file './mysql/db.frm' (Errcode: 13)
ERROR: 1 Can't create/write to file './mysql/db.frm' (Errcode: 13)
ERROR: 1 Can't create/write to file './mysql/db.frm' (Errcode: 13)
ERROR: 1 Can't create/write to file './mysql/db.frm' (Errcode: 13)
ERROR: 1 Can't create/write to file './mysql/db.frm' (Errcode: 13)
ERROR: 1 Can't create/write to file './mysql/db.frm' (Errcode: 13)
ERROR: 1 Can't create/write to file './mysql/db.frm' (Errcode: 13)
ERROR: 1 Can't create/write to file './mysql/db.frm' (Errcode: 13)
ERROR: 1 Can't create/write to file './mysql/db.frm' (Errcode: 13)
ERROR: 1 Can't create/write to file './mysql/db.frm' (Errcode: 13)
ERROR: 1 Can't create/write to file './mysql/db.frm' (Errcode: 13)
ERROR: 1 Can't create/write to file './mysql/db.frm' (Errcode: 13)
040206 22:17:50 /usr/libexec/mysqld: Shutdown Complete

For some reason it cant create the files. Ive also tried chown commands that ive found in other threads, etc, but nothing seems to work. Any ideas?

Check the permissions on the directory... mine is
drwxr-xr-x 12 root mysql 4096 Jul 27 2003 mysql/ and for the

insides...
drwxr-xr-x 12 root mysql 4096 Jul 27 2003 ./
drwxr-xr-x 23 root root 4096 Dec 7 18:19 ../
drwxr-xr-x 2 root mysql 4096 Jan 21 14:59 bin/
drwxr-xr-x 3 root mysql 4096 Jul 27 2003 include/
drwxr-xr-x 2 root mysql 4096 Jul 27 2003 info/
drwxr-xr-x 3 root mysql 4096 Jul 27 2003 lib/
drwxr-xr-x 2 root mysql 4096 Jul 27 2003 libexec/
drwxr-xr-x 3 root mysql 4096 Jul 27 2003 man/
drwxr-xr-x 6 root mysql 4096 Jul 27 2003 mysql-test/
drwxr-xr-x 3 root mysql 4096 Jul 27 2003 share/
drwxr-xr-x 5 root mysql 4096 Jul 27 2003 sql-bench/
drwx------ 4 mysql mysql 4096 Jan 22 00:10 var/

Right on. The mysql user didnt have the right permissions, so I basically just gave him full access to the folder using chmod. Seems like everything is working now. Thanks!