1. Obviously the 'ole check the log file for anything nasty cat /var/log/mysqld.log 2. Stop the service service mysqld stop 3. Check to see if the service stopped, it might be calling the wrong pid. ps aux | grep mysql 4. Kill any mysql process that might still be running. kill -9 ??? ??? 5. (*CAREFUL*) Remove/move/backup any databases from the data directory, only do this step if you need to. rm -Rf /var/lib/mysql/* 6. Check your global options configuration file, should be similar to stevanbt's initial post. cat /etc/my.cnf 7. Copy over one of the preconfigured 'sample' server-specific options file. Global (/etc/my.cnf) file has priority over server-specific file, but these have more options in them and have been tuned for a certain role. cp /usr/share/doc/mysql-server-?.??.??/my-small.cnf /var/lib/mysql 8. Recreate the initial databases, this step is optional as the initscripts will do this anyway. mysql_install_db 9. Check and set the runlevels for the service. chkconfig --level 345 mysqld on chkconfig --list mysqld 10. Start the service. service mysqld start 11. Check the log file (step 1) Thats just a basic step through check, most of you have probably already done this.