Just a short note to help me remember the next time this comes up—I decided it was worth a note once I entered the second hour of trying to figure out the problem…
If you want to enable INNODB support with MySLQ 4.0.x, you must install an extra package: mysql-max. Here’s a note off the mysql website that explains both the problem I was seeing and the solution.
I’ve found quite a few people having issues initializing MySQL 4.0.x with InnoDB support under Suse 9.x Pro. Server startup will fail with a message like:unknown variable ‘innodb_data_home_dir=/var/lib/mysql’
If this happens, make sure you’ve installed the mySQL-Max package (after installing the base mySQL server). Then invoke the server like:
$ /usr/sbin/mysqld-max
You should then see your InnoDB tables initialize.
Yes, that was the problem. After grabbing the mySQL-Max package and installing it, suddenly the innodb configuration statements in my.cnf started working properly. My thanks to Brian Krispinsky who posted this last April.