I'm running Fedora Core 4 with Gnome. I am asking how to set up PHP/MySQL to
create a LAMP server. I got apache up and running, so I have an LA, so now I
need to get the MP.

1. I did ./configure, make, and make install last week, and I can't really
remember if there were error messages, but I don't think there were errors.
I also changed the owner from root to mysql; although I don't know if it
worked or not. So now I'm at the step of mysql_install_db:

I enter:
# /usr/src/mysql-4.1.12/scripts/mysql_install_db --user=mysql

returns:
/usr/src/mysql-4.1.12/scripts/mysql_install_db: line85: my_print_defaults:
command not found
Could not find help file 'fill_help_tables.sql' in .support-files or inside
..

At some point during the past few days, I tried running mysqld and got this
(from mysqld.log)

050719 15:21:10 InnoDB: Flushing modified pages from the buffer pool...
050719 15:21:10 InnoDB: Started; log sequence number 0 43634
050719 15:21:10 [ERROR] /usr/local/src/mysql/mysql-4.1.12/bin/mysqld: Can't
create/write to file '/var/run/mysqld/mysqld.pid' (Errcode: 2)
050719 15:21:11 [ERROR] Can' start server: can't create PID file: No such
file or directory
050719 15:21:11 mysqld ended

I've searched forums online and read messages about this error being a
permissions problem. I've dabbled with commands they provide as solutions
but i don't think they are working.

Thanks for any help. As for PHP, I tried to make with mysql extension, but I
got a mysql error and it didn't work. so i tried make and installing it
without mysql to see if i could just get it running, and make & make install
seemed to work fine with no errors. I made sure the httpd.conf file has the
line to tell the server to recognize php files. Then I put a php file called
test.php in the html directory, and tried to make it executable (chmod u+x
test.php) I got the error message

chmod: cannot access 'test.php': No such file or directory.

when i look in the directory (dir) there are 4 files: hello.html index.html
\ test.php \ test.php~

hello.html & index.html both work. what does the backslash mean in front of
the test.php? so maybe php is working alright but the problem is I can't
make the file executable?

everything i've done has been done on the root username.

so i just want to have them up and running, and i've searched around a bunch of posts but nothing seems to work. thanks for any help.

looks like the blackslash is part of the filename; do `mv "\test.php" test.php`

You don't need to make test.php or \test.php executable, the user apache is running as just needs read access to the file.

At the MySQL site it is recomended to use the binaries and not compile from source, If I were you I would follow their advice and follow the installtation instructions absolutely to the letter, MySQL spits its dummy if the slightest thing is not to its liking

I think the backslash is there to escape a space in front of the file name.
mv \ test.php test.php should fix this.

For mysql problem
the owner of /var/run/mysqld/ must be mysql
if not you must change it with "chown -R mysql /var/run/mysqld" but you must create
mysql user before.

OR
Try XAMPP
with xampp you can manage the hole system easily.

hrm: why not just:
yum update
yum install apache
yum install mysql
yum install php

-- there you have it, your LAMP server installed --

i just renamed the files and now php works. how simple.

regarding mysql, i yum installed mysql per deviance99's post. now i try to start the mysqld, and i get the following error:

[ERROR] Can't find messagefile '/usr/local/mysql/share/mysql/english/errmsg.sys'
[ERROR] Aborting

i searched and found the english files here:
/usr/share/mysql/english and
/usr/local/src/mysql/mysql-4.1.12/share/mysql/english


i think it would be easiest just to start over with mysql and install using an RPM. But I don't know which one to get for x86, FC4. can someone look at the download site and let me know which to get? also, how can i uninstall whatever mysql files are already on the hard drive? thanks

I always use this package from http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/mysql/4.1.html and follow these instructions to install and it has never failed

Create a symlink from
/usr/local/src/mysql/mysql-4.1.12/ to /usr/local/mysql/
eg.
ln -s /usr/local/src/mysql/mysql-4.1.12/ /usr/local/mysql/
Your better off using the binary distros provided

thanks. I eventually installed both with no errors.

ok well it looks like the mysql extension was not included on the php installation. when i look at the phpinfo(), the configuration includes "--without-mysql". however, i've configured & installed it it twice using --with-mysql and i haven't had any errors.

i searched the filesystem for mysql.so, and it's not there.

what else can i do? do i just need to get the .so file?

thanks