1. Grab the tar.gz file for the version you need, for example I used mysql-4.0.27.tar.gz which I found on an old mirror using google. Starting from the root folder
   1. debianbox:/# wget http://www.sfr-fresh.com/unix/misc/mysql-4.0.27.tar.gz -P /usr/local/src/

   This saved the version I needed in /usr/local/src/

   1. debianbox:/# tar -xvvzf /usr/local/src/mysql-4.0.27.tar.gz -C /usr/local/src/ ; rm /usr/local/src/mysql-4.0.27.tar.gz

   This extracts the folder into /usr/local/src then deletes the original archive.

2. 1. debianbox:/# cd /usr/local/src/mysql-4.0.27
3. I ran ./configure, and got the error
   1. checking for termcap functions library… configure: error: No curses/termcap library found

   To overcome this (I read this guide and) I had to run configure using the –with-named-curses-lib flag, pointing to my libncurses library, e.g. ./configure –with-named-curses-libs=/lib/libncurses.so.5. That worked, but then gave me all sorts of grief later. Having read this guide I found I should suffix ./configure with –prefix=/usr/local/mysql, so you should run./configure –with-named-curses-libs=/lib/libncurses.so.5 –prefix=/usr/local/mysql

4. 1. debianbox:/# make
   2. debianbox:/# make install
   3. debianbox:/# ./scripts/mysql_install_db
5. That completes the installation, but when I ran mysqld_safe to start the server I got
   1. debianbox:/usr/local/bin# mysqld_safe
   2. Starting mysqld daemon with databases from /usr/local/var
   3. STOPPING server from pid file /usr/local/var/debianbox.pid
   4. 080807 15:54:36  mysqld ended

   To understand why it was failing I needed to find the log file. I did this by running find . -name *.err from the root folder. The mysql error log file was called /usr/local/var/debianbox.err (debianbox is my machine name). This said

   1. 080807 18:45:09 mysqld started
   2. 080807 18:45:09 InnoDB: Started
   3. 080807 18:45:09 /usr/local/libexec/mysqld: Can't find file: './mysql/host.frm' (errno: 13)
   4. 080807 18:45:09 Fatal error: Can't open privilege tables: Can't find file: './mysql/host.frm' (errno: 13)
   5. 080807 18:45:09 Aborting
   6.  
   7. 080807 18:45:09 InnoDB: Starting shutdown…
   8. 080807 18:45:11 InnoDB: Shutdown completed
   9. 080807 18:45:11 /usr/local/libexec/mysqld: Shutdown Complete
   10.  
   11. 080807 18:45:11 mysqld ended
6. Firstly I checked the file host.frm existed
   1. debianbox:/# find / -name host.frm
   2. /var/lib/mysql/mysql/host.frm
   3. /usr/local/var/mysql/host.frm
   4. /usr/local/mysql/var/mysql/host.frm
7. errno: 13 is a permissions error. Next you need to add the mysql user and groups to the list of permissions as per the following
   1. debianbox:/# groupadd mysql
   2. debianbox:/# useradd -g mysql mysql
   3. debianbox:/# chown -R root /usr/local/mysql
   4. debianbox:/# chown -R mysql /usr/local/mysql/var
   5. debianbox:/# chgrp -R mysql /usr/local/mysql
8. That didn’t appear to help me at all, my problem was I was running mysqld_safe from the wrong location, so the relative link to ./mysql/host.frm was wrong.
   1. debianbox:/# cd /usr/local/mysql/bin
   2. debianbox:/# ./mysqld_safe –user=mysql &

   Tada! I could then use the mysql client to connect and ‘show databases;’ produced an output.

9. Next up my phpmyadmin install, and anything using mysql through errors.
   1. Warning: mysql_connect() [function.mysql-connect]: Can't connect to local MySQL server through socket '/var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock' (2) in /myscript.php on line 4
   2. ERROR: Unable to connect to database server: Can't connect to local MySQL server through socket '/var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock' (2)

   and when viewing phpmyadmin

   1. phpMyAdmin – error
   2. #2002 – The server is not responding (or the local MySQL server's socket is not correctly configured)

   The problem was that because I specified prefix when configuring my mysql install the default locations that apache looks in for mysql where all wrong. I found my sock file like this

   1. debianbox:/# find / -name *.sock
   2. /var/run/cups/cups.sock
   3. /tmp/mysql.sock

   Then edited my php.ini file on the line

   1. mysql.default_socket =

   to

   1. mysql.default_socket = /tmp/mysql.sock

   restarted apache, and everything (so far) works great!

http://markshrader.wordpress.com/2007/10/14/step-by-step-debian-webserver/

I actually dodged using VMWare (or Virtual PC 2007, my personal preference) and installed it on a fresh server.  To do that I just downloaded CD 1 of the Debian cd install sets (NOT the network install CD) and ran that, then used the net to download the remaining packages I needed.

NB: Just remember the packages in the setup (e.g. wget http://apache.rmplc.co.uk/httpd/httpd-2.2.4.tar.gz) are mostly out of date, so you’ll need to adjust accordingly (I used wget http://apache.rmplc.co.uk/httpd/httpd-2.2.9.tar.gz).