which distribution are you using?
how did you installed snort
i use ...
tar -zxvf snort-2.8.3.2.tar.gz
cd snort-2.8.3.2
./configure --with-mysql --enable-dynamicplugin
make
make install
groupadd snort
useradd -g snort snort –s /sbin/nologin
mkdir /etc/snort/rules
mkdir /var/log/snort
cd etc/
cp * /etc/snort
vi snort.conf (file is located in /etc/snort)
var HOME_NET 10.0.0.0/24
var EXTERNAL_NET !$HOME_NET
var RULE_PATH /etc/snort/rules
output database: log, mysql, user=snort password=<snort123>
dbname=snort host=localhost
wget
http://internetsecurityguru.com/snortinit/snort
chmod 755 snort
chkconfig snort on
service snort start