localhost.err contains this:

050516 18:29:14 mysqld started
050516 18:29:14 [Warning] Asked for 196608 thread stack, but got 126976
^G/usr/sbin/mysqld: Can't read dir of '/root/tmp/' (Errcode: 13)
^G/usr/sbin/mysqld: Can't create/write to file '/root/tmp/ibORDDPw' (Errcode: 13)
050516 18:29:14 InnoDB: Error: unable to create temporary file; errno: 13
050516 18:29:14 [ERROR] Can't init databases
050516 18:29:14 [ERROR] Aborting

050516 18:29:14 [Note] /usr/sbin/mysqld: Shutdown complete

050516 18:29:14 mysqld ended

mandrake 10.1
mysql version 4.1.1

Permission problem.
Are you running mysql as non root? I wonder why it is trying to use tmp on /root?

I think that the permission of dir /root/tmp caused your problem.

Try to change the permission of dir /root/tmp



regards
Agus Dwi Basuki

i'm running it as aa root user. what seems to be the problem..?

i already changed it. chmod 755 /root/tmp

i still get the same error.

MAYBE THIS CAN HELP YOU GUYS:

[root@localhost mysql]# pwd
/var/lib/mysql
[root@localhost mysql]# ls -al
total 20544
drwxr-xr-x 4 mysql mysql 4096 May 16 19:15 ./
drwxr-xr-x 19 root root 4096 May 16 00:38 ../
-rw-rw---- 1 root root 10485760 May 16 01:04 ibdata1
-rw-rw---- 1 root root 5242880 May 16 01:04 ib_logfile0
-rw-rw---- 1 root root 5242880 May 16 00:53 ib_logfile1
-rw-rw---- 1 mysql root 7763 May 16 19:15 localhost.err
drwx--x--x 2 mysql root 4096 May 16 00:38 mysql/
srwxrwxrwx 1 mysql mysql 0 May 16 19:15 mysql.sock=
drwxr-xr-x 2 mysql root 4096 May 16 00:38 test/

check your /etc/my.cnf file for the existance of a "tmpdir" rule, if it's there, change it to /tmp. If it's not there, add a line under the [mysqld] section like so:

I had the same problem with mdk 10.2 and this suggestion fixed it.

Thanks a lot zeos