Very basic newbie question regarding MySQL

crispyleif · 11-07-2005, 09:57 AM

Hi

Straight on : I've been using MS access in the past, and now I need a similar tool in linux.
I understand MySQL is the solution ? According to what I've heard it's supposed to be quite better...

Anyway, MySQL is installed but I can't find out how to use it ! Must I make some sort of server and connect to it ?

Please ppl, I know that this seems utterly newbie, but I would really appreciate some info on this..

Not often google can't help me out

stickman · 11-07-2005, 10:26 AM

Yes, you must configure and start mysqld. You can use the CLI mysql client or a myriad of GUI client to connect.

crispyleif · 11-07-2005, 10:36 AM

Thanks man !

I installed mysql-client navigator and that seems like a god tool so far.

But what I would love is something that gave me the same interface to making databases that access uses ? I'm not against learning new things, it's just that making databases from the command line seems a bit "old-fashioned" ...

Any idea how to do that ?

pnellesen · 11-07-2005, 11:12 AM

You might want to look at "mysql-query-browser" and "mysql-administrator" (both are GUI-type apps, and both are available at the MySQL website.) While not exactly like Access, they do provide most of the same functionality - I found them to be a pretty good replacement myself; I was looking for more or less the same thing you are when I switched to MySQL.

crispyleif · 11-07-2005, 11:16 AM

Man, now I feel stupid here

I have installed MySQL administrator... I start it and it wants me to login to a mysql server.

That's my problem, I'm used to start MS access and start editing tables...

If I must create/start a server first, how do I do that ?

- I feel like I'm closing in on it here, thanks for the help !

pnellesen · 11-07-2005, 02:18 PM

Ah, yeah, getting MySQL up and running. That's the FUN part

About all I can say to that is check out the installation/setup documentation on the MySQL site - it's pretty thorough, but you will need to get really friendly with the command line... At least, I had to, but there may be other tools out there that make it easier...

Good Luck! There's TONS of MySQL threads on this site - I was able to get my MySQL install up and running mostly by searching through them for questions I couldn't answer via the MySQL documentation.

Hangdog42 · 11-07-2005, 02:43 PM

I don't know if this helps, but the Open Office suite has a dbase program that is supposedly similar in concept to MS Access. It can either work as a stand-alone program or it can connect to a database server like MySQL.

crispyleif · 11-07-2005, 07:13 PM

Finally got it ! Somehow I had not seen the tutorial at the mysql site... once the basic was running, I could connect via mysql administrator.

Thanks for all the help & suggestions !

oz_ollie · 11-07-2005, 09:59 PM

There are a number of interfaces that can use MySQL as the backend but provide an Access-like way of designing and managing databases. Look at:

Knoda - http://www.knoda.org/
Mergeant - http://www.gnome-db.org/
Rekall - http://www.rekallrevealed.org/kbExec.py

If your databases are on web servers there is also phpMyAdmin designed to manage MySQL databases over the network (can be used locally). Just be aware of security issues.

Hope these help.

crispyleif · 11-07-2005, 11:13 PM

Tested Knode and found it (so far) even better than mysql administrator !

Thank you for the tip