I tried both ways: your attached mysqld and the one with only one line
with -u UNKNOWN_USER, but still failed:

# /etc/init.d/mysqld restart
Stopping MySQL:                                            [  OK  ]
Timeout error occurred trying to start MySQL Daemon.
Starting MySQL:                                            [FAILED]

BTW, I have:
# ps xa | grep sql
 5749 pts/2    S      0:00 /bin/sh /usr/bin/safe_mysqld
--defaults-file=/etc/my.cnf
 5773 pts/2    S      0:00 /usr/libexec/mysqld
--defaults-file=/etc/my.cnf --basedir=/usr --datadir=/var/lib/mysql
--user=mysql --pid-file=/var/run/mysqld/mysqld.pid --skip-locking

anything wrong?

Maybe, I need to completely uninstall mysql packes.  However, some packes 
are depended each other:

# rpm -e mysql-3.23.58-4
error: Failed dependencies:
        libmysqlclient.so.10 is needed by (installed) perl-DBD-MySQL-2.9002-1
# rpm -e perl-DBD-MySQL-2.9002-1
error: Failed dependencies:
        perl-DBD-MySQL is needed by (installed) mysql-3.23.58-4

How to completely uninstall them?  Later, how to install them together?

Thanks!

Hongwei

==============Original message text===============
On Thu, 15 Apr 2004 2:42:35 pm CDT Clint Harshaw wrote:

On Thursday 15 April 2004 2:48 pm, hongwei@morpheus.wustl.edu wrote:
> Thanks for the help!  However, I tried 2 suggestions:
>
> if !([ -n "`/usr/bin/mysqladmin -u mysqld ping 2> /dev/null`" ]); then
> with
> if [ -n "`/usr/bin/mysqladmin  -u mysqld ping 2> /dev/null`" ]; then
>
> and
>
> if !([ -n "`/usr/bin/mysqladmin -u UNKNOWN_USER ping 2> /dev/null`" ]);
> then with
> if [ -n "`/usr/bin/mysqladmin -u UNKNOWN_USER ping 2> /dev/null`" ]; then
>
> or even just one of the above lines in /etc/rc.d/init.d/mysqld, then
> restart mysqld.  But I still got the same error.  Is any other thing I
> need to "clean"?
>
> Thanks!
>
> Hongwei
>

I edited only the one line that begins if !([-n  and left the other line 
intact.

Here is a copy of the affected section from my /etc/rc.d/init.d/mysqld:

        # Spin for a maximum of ten seconds waiting for the server to come up
        if [ $ret -eq 0 ]; then
            for x in 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10; do
            if [ -n "`/usr/bin/mysqladmin ping 2> /dev/null`" ]; then
                    break;
            else
                    sleep 1;
            fi
            done
            if !([ -n "`/usr/bin/mysqladmin -u UNKNOWN_USER ping 2> 
/dev/null`" ]); then
                    echo "Timeout error occurred trying to start MySQL

Clint 

-- 
Clint Harshaw  <clint@penguinsolutions.org>
Fedora Core 1
2.4.22-1.2174.nptl GNU/Linux
Uptime: 6 days 23 hours and 46 minutes.
===========End of original message text===========