Problem installing mysql

user · July 26, 2008, 8:39am

I’m running SUSE 10.3, and installed mysql from YaST. I started the
mysql daemon at the command line as root. It created the mysql database
and said to issue a couple of commands to set the root password. No
magic there - same as it’s done for the last hald dozen versions of SUSE
that I’ve used. Except the 2nd line didn’t work. I got the following
error:

koala:/var/lib # /usr/bin/mysqladmin -u root -h koala.mmc password *****
/usr/bin/mysqladmin: connect to server at ‘koala.mmc’ failed
error: ‘Host ‘koala.mmc’ is not allowed to connect to this MySQL server’

It never used to do that. The full output is below.

koala:/var/lib # rcmysql start
Creating MySQL privilege database…
Installing MySQL system tables…
OK
Filling help tables…
OK
PLEASE REMEMBER TO SET A PASSWORD FOR THE MySQL root USER !
To do so, start the server, then issue the following commands:
/usr/bin/mysqladmin -u root password ‘new-password’
/usr/bin/mysqladmin -u root -h koala.mmc password ‘new-password’
See the manual for more instructions.
You can start the MySQL daemon with:
cd /usr ; /usr/bin/mysqld_safe &

You can test the MySQL daemon with mysql-test-run.pl
cd mysql-test ; perl mysql-test-run.pl

Please report any problems with the /usr/bin/mysqlbug script!

The latest information about MySQL is available on the web at
http://www.mysql.com
Support MySQL by buying support/licenses at http://shop.mysql.com
Updating MySQL privilege database…
Looking for ‘mysql’ in: /usr/bin/mysql
Looking for ‘mysqlcheck’ in: /usr/bin/mysqlcheck
Running ‘mysqlcheck’…
mysql.columns_priv OK
mysql.db OK
mysql.func OK
mysql.help_category OK
mysql.help_keyword OK
mysql.help_relation OK
mysql.help_topic OK
mysql.host OK
mysql.proc OK
mysql.procs_priv OK
mysql.tables_priv OK
mysql.time_zone OK
mysql.time_zone_leap_second OK
mysql.time_zone_name OK
mysql.time_zone_transition OK
mysql.time_zone_transition_type OK
mysql.user OK
Running ‘mysql_fix_privilege_tables’…
OK
Starting service MySQL done
koala:/var/lib #
koala:/var/lib # /usr/bin/mysqladmin -u root password *
koala:/var/lib # /usr/bin/mysqladmin -u root -h koala.mmc password *
/usr/bin/mysqladmin: connect to server at ‘koala.mmc’ failed
error: ‘Host ‘koala.mmc’ is not allowed to connect to this MySQL server’

In earlier versions, starting mysql for the first time didn’t print out
the list of tables. I presume that’s the output from mysqlcheck. I
don’t recall it running the mysql_fix_privilege_tables script either.
I’m wondering if that script is what caused the 2nd command to fail, by
setting some privilege levels in the database.

I’m not sure if that will be problematic or not later, but it seems odd
that I can’t connect to mysql specifying the host, whereas I could in
earlier versions. Is this now the expected behavior, and will it likely
cause problems?

Thanks…

…Kevin

Kevin Miller
http://www.alaska.net/~atftb
Juneau, Alaska
Registered Linux User No: 307357, http://counter.li.org

john_hudson · July 26, 2008, 9:32am

I am puzzled by your hostname. On mine they are ‘localhost’ and 'linuxsite.xxxx where xxxx is a different sequence depending on the version of OpenSUSE.

Have you tried
Select user,host from mysql.user;

Chrysantine · July 26, 2008, 9:48am

Why are you connecting with a host at all? If you don’t use it, it’ll use localhost which it should.

Remote connections per host to MySQL should never be allowed (unless explicitly required by a multi-server setup or for replication reasons)

user · July 26, 2008, 7:43pm

john hudson wrote:
> I am puzzled by your hostname. On mine they are ‘localhost’ and
> 'linuxsite.xxxx where xxxx is a different sequence depending on the
> version of OpenSUSE.

Well, you can set your hostname to anything you want. Just edit
/etc/HOSTNAME and /etc/hosts.

When my sons were small they loved stuffed koalas, so when I first went
to linux, I named the host that. It sorta stuck. The .mmc domain is a
reference to the “Miller Men’s Club” which is what me and the boys
called our dad & kids night out. I borrowed the reference from the
“Huxtable Men’s Club” from the old Bill Cosby show.

Since my machine is on my home network and the inside IP isn’t going to
be found in any name servers it doesn’t really matter what I call it.

I don’t recall seeing the XXX sequence - my vague recollection is it
named the host linux.localdomain or some such but it’s been quite a
while since I did an install.

> Have you tried
> Select user,host from mysql.user;

Nope. But I can:

koala:/home/mkm # mysql -u root -p
Enter password:
Welcome to the MySQL monitor. Commands end with ; or \g.
Your MySQL connection id is 2
Server version: 5.0.45 SUSE MySQL RPM

Type ‘help;’ or ‘\h’ for help. Type ‘\c’ to clear the buffer.

mysql> exti
bye
koala:/home/mkm # mysql -u root -p -h localhost
Enter password:
Welcome to the MySQL monitor. Commands end with ; or \g.
Your MySQL connection id is 3
Server version: 5.0.45 SUSE MySQL RPM

Type ‘help;’ or ‘\h’ for help. Type ‘\c’ to clear the buffer.

mysql> exit
Bye
koala:/home/mkm # mysql -u root -p -h koala
Enter password:
ERROR 1130 (00000): Host ‘koala.mmc’ is not allowed to connect to this
MySQL server

=======================================================================

So it seems that I can get in w/no hostname, or w/localhost, but not
with koala or koala.mmc (which koala apparently expands to).

Maybe it’s a moot point and everything will work fine. I just hate
error messages that didn’t used to happen doing the exact same thing…

…Kevin

Kevin Miller
http://www.alaska.net/~atftb
Juneau, Alaska
Registered Linux User No: 307357, http://counter.li.org

user · July 26, 2008, 8:04pm

Chrysantine wrote:
> Why are you connecting with a host at all? If you don’t use it, it’ll
> use localhost which it should.

Well, I don’t know that I actually need to. Guess I’m just trying to
make sure that things work right from the start, rather than trying to
troubleshoot a more complex setup down the line. “An ounce of
prevention…” and all that.

Thing is, earlier versions worked as advertised, and when you start
mysql for the first time it prints out this:

PLEASE REMEMBER TO SET A PASSWORD FOR THE MySQL root USER !
To do so, start the server, then issue the following commands:
/usr/bin/mysqladmin -u root password ‘new-password’
/usr/bin/mysqladmin -u root -h koala.mmc password ‘new-password’

That’s probably boilerplate verbiage from the mysql factory, but if
openSUSE changed the default behavior via the mysql_fix_permissions
script (or some other way) I would hope they’d also clean up the
scripts. Obviously the koala.mmc isn’t from the mysql folks but it’s
easily injected by the script. No magic there.

> Remote connections per host to MySQL should never be allowed (unless
> explicitly required by a multi-server setup or for replication reasons)

Sure. The software I’ll be using is Rivendell -
http://www.rivendellaudio.org/ - which can be accessed over a network.
In my case it won’t be, but it does have that option.

So maybe it’s a non-issue, I don’t know. I just don’t like it when the
instructions say one thing and the resulting behavior is another. It
can be a hassle to debug applications when system settings are changed
but not documented, especially for those of us that merely want to use
an application, not hack it…

…Kevin

Kevin Miller
http://www.alaska.net/~atftb
Juneau, Alaska
Registered Linux User No: 307357, http://counter.li.org

john_hudson · July 26, 2008, 10:06pm

The problem may be that the community edition of MySQL only assumes two hostnames:

Reading info mysql, I find:

2.4.15.6 Securing the Initial MySQL Accounts

‘On Unix, both root' accounts are for connections from the local host. Connections must be made from the local host by specifying a hostname of localhost’ for one of the accounts,or the actual hostname or IP number for the other.’

There is a reference elsewhere to using mysqladmin to identify the port numbers. Perhaps you have inadvertently ended up with a host without a port or a host with a duplicate port.

I confess this is guessing as the documentation assumes that the host has been set up and you want to connect to it; there is nothing that I can find about adding another host.