chown: mysql: invalid user?

[fowlerlfc]

I have just installed mysql 3.23.51 on box using redhat 7.1. When I cd into /usr/local/mysql/bin and type ./safe_mysqld & I get the following output:

chown: mysql: invalid user
Starting mysqld daemon with databases from /usr/local/mysql/var
020705 10:40:48 mysqld ended

Obviously, MySQL is not starting. I'm very new to Linux so I'm not sure what the first line means. Someone please help!

 

[danielhozac]

Apparently the user that mysql should be running under doesn't exist.
Confirm this by doing a "cat /etc/passwd | grep mysql". If you don't get any output, you would have to create the user.
Executing this command would create the user and setting the home directory to the database dir:
useradd -d /usr/local/mysql/var mysql //Daniel