mysqld startup problems

[Norberto Meijome]

Aidan Whyte wrote:
> Anyone have any ideas at all about this?

Not directly, but when I find myself in this pickle, I try to see what 
exactly is the process doing:

$ ktrace /usr/local/etc/rc.d/mysql-server.sh start

( wait for it to finish )

kdump -f ./ktrace.out | less

and look for any errors / etc, and take it from there. you'll be able to 
see any access errors / file not found,etc (i'd say it's a missing 
directory or wrong access in a directory for mysql user)

good luck.
B