[Lyle@Spry]

• Download the requested version from http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/ (Easiest option and the one described here is the tar file binary distribution)
• Ensure there is a mysql user and group in /etc/passwd and /etc/group. Use useradd and groupadd to add them if not already present.
  

  # grep mysql /etc/group /etc/passwd
  /etc/group:mysql:x:27:
  /etc/passwd:mysql:x:27:27:MySQL Server:/var/lib/mysql:/bin/bash

• Unpack the tarball in /usr/local
  

  # cd /usr/local && tar xzvf /path/to/mysql-VERSION-OS.tar.gz

• Create a link to avoid RSI
  

  # ln -s mysql-VERSION-OS mysql

• Stop the currently running MySQLd and back up the databases. (You could also do a full dump while it's running, but this is the safest.)
  

  # service mysqld stop && tar czf /var/lib/mysql.tgz /var/lib/mysql

• Modify the startup script in /etc/init.d/mysqld to use the newly installed mysql in /usr/local/mysql/bin vs. the original /usr/bin/mysql
  

  #!/bin/bash
  #
  # mysqld        This shell script takes care of starting and stopping
  #               the MySQL subsystem (mysqld).
  #
  # chkconfig: - 78 12
  # description:  MySQL database server.
  # processname: mysqld
  # config: /etc/my.cnf
  # pidfile: /var/run/mysqld/mysqld.pid
  
  # Source function library.
  . /etc/rc.d/init.d/functions
  
  # Source networking configuration.
  . /etc/sysconfig/network
  
  
  prog="MySQL"
  
  datadir="/var/lib/mysql"
  
  start(){
          touch /var/log/mysqld.log
          chown mysql.mysql /var/log/mysqld.log 
          chmod 0640 /var/log/mysqld.log
          if [ ! -d $datadir/mysql ] ; then
              action $"Initializing MySQL database: " /usr/local/mysql/bin/mysql_install_db
              ret=$?
              chown -R mysql.mysql $datadir
              if [ $ret -ne 0 ] ; then
                  return $ret
              fi
          fi
          chown -R mysql.mysql $datadir
          chmod 0755 $datadir
          /usr/local/mysql/bin/safe_mysqld  --defaults-file=/etc/my.cnf --pid-file=/var/run/mysqld/mysqld.pid >/dev/null 2>&1 &
          ret=$?
          # Spin for a maximum of N seconds waiting for the server to come up.
          # Rather than assuming we know a valid username, accept an "access
          # denied" response as meaning the server is functioning.
          if [ $ret -eq 0 ]; then
              STARTTIMEOUT=10
              while [ $STARTTIMEOUT -gt 0 ]; do
                  RESPONSE=`/usr/local/mysql/bin/mysqladmin -uUNKNOWN_MYSQL_USER ping 2>&1` && break
                  echo "$RESPONSE" | grep -q "Access denied for user" && break
                  sleep 1
                  let STARTTIMEOUT=${STARTTIMEOUT}-1
              done
              if [ $STARTTIMEOUT -eq 0 ]; then
                      echo "Timeout error occurred trying to start MySQL Daemon."
                      action $"Starting $prog: " /bin/false
              else
                      action $"Starting $prog: " /bin/true
              fi
          else
              action $"Starting $prog: " /bin/false
          fi
          [ $ret -eq 0 ] && touch /var/lock/subsys/mysqld
          return $ret
  }
  
  stop(){
          /bin/kill `cat /var/run/mysqld/mysqld.pid  2> /dev/null ` > /dev/null 2>&1
          ret=$?
          if [ $ret -eq 0 ]; then
              action $"Stopping $prog: " /bin/true
          else
              action $"Stopping $prog: " /bin/false
          fi
          [ $ret -eq 0 ] && rm -f /var/lock/subsys/mysqld
          [ $ret -eq 0 ] && rm -f $datadir/mysql.sock
          return $ret
  }
   
  restart(){
      stop
      sleep 2
      start
  }
  
  condrestart(){
      [ -e /var/lock/subsys/mysqld ] && restart || :
  }
  
  # See how we were called.
  case "$1" in
    start)
      start
      ;;
    stop)
      stop
      ;;
    status)
      status mysqld
      ;;
    restart)
      restart
      ;;
    condrestart)
      condrestart
      ;;
    *)
      echo $"Usage: $0 {start|stop|status|condrestart|restart}"
      exit 1
  esac
  
  exit $?

• Start the newly installed mysql with 'service mysqld start'
  If you see a [FAILED] message, but ps still shows a mysqld process running, modify /etc/my.cnf to include the following (update socket line to match the path specified in the [mysqld] section):
  

  [mysqladmin]
  socket=/var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock

• Verify you can connect to the database server with: (Use the Plesk admin password when prompted.)

  # /usr/local/mysql/bin/mysql -uadmin -p

  If you get an error about not being able to connect via socket:
  

  ERROR 2002 (HY000): Can't connect to local MySQL server through socket '/tmp/mysql.sock' (2)

  Add this section to /etc/my.cnf like above:

  [mysql]
  socket=/var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock