Hi Mark,

[ snip ]

I already tried (I am currently using) 3.1.6 drivers, I downloaded latest alpha (3.2) but no bananas: hier stacktrace from my app:

INFO - [Building new Hibernate ] - at org.springframework.orm.hibernate.LocalSessionFactoryBean.afterPropertiesSet(LocalSessionFactoryBean.java:411)WARN - [SQL Error: 0, SQLState: ] - at net.sf.hibernate.util.JDBCExceptionReporter.logExceptions(JDBCExceptionReporter.java:57)ERROR - [Server connection failure during transaction. Due to underlying exception: 'com.mysql.jdbc.CommunicationsException: Communications link failure due to underlying exception: ** BEGIN NESTED EXCEPTION ** java.io.EOFExceptionSTACKTRACE:java.io.EOFException at com.mysql.jdbc.MysqlIO.readFully(MysqlIO.java:1895) at com.mysql.jdbc.MysqlIO.readPacket(MysqlIO.java:496) at com.mysql.jdbc.MysqlIO.doHandshake(MysqlIO.java:997) at com.mysql.jdbc.Connection.createNewIO(Connection.java:1813) at com.mysql.jdbc.Connection.<init>(Connection.java:408) at com.mysql.jdbc.NonRegisteringDriver.connect(NonRegisteringDriver.java:270) at java.sql.DriverManager.getConnection(DriverManager.java:512) at java.sql.DriverManager.getConnection(DriverManager.java:171) at org.springframework.jdbc.datasource.DriverManagerDataSource.getConnectionFromDriverManager(DriverManagerDataSource.java:156) at org.springframework.jdbc.datasource.DriverManagerDataSource.getConnectionFromDriverManager(DriverManagerDataSource.java:144) at org.springframework.jdbc.datasource.DriverManagerDataSource.getConnection(DriverManagerDataSource.java:132) at org.springframework.orm.hibernate.LocalDataSourceConnectionProvider.getConnection(LocalDataSourceConnectionProvider.java:59) at net.sf.hibernate.cfg.SettingsFactory.buildSettings(SettingsFactory.java:84) at net.sf.hibernate.cfg.Configuration.buildSettings(Configuration.java:1160) at net.sf.hibernate.cfg.Configuration.buildSessionFactory(Configuration.java:794) at org.springframework.orm.hibernate.LocalSessionFactoryBean.newSessionFactory(LocalSessionFactoryBean.java:475) at org.springframework.orm.hibernate.LocalSessionFactoryBean.afterPropertiesSet(LocalSessionFactoryBean.java:413) at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.invokeInitMethods(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:1037) at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.createBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:305) at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.createBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:223) at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory.getBean(AbstractBeanFactory.java:236) at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory.getBean(AbstractBeanFactory.java:159) at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.DefaultListableBeanFactory.preInstantiateSingletons(DefaultListableBeanFactory.java:255) at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.refresh(AbstractApplicationContext.java:317) at org.springframework.web.context.support.AbstractRefreshableWebApplicationContext.refresh(AbstractRefreshableWebApplicationContext.java:131) at org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoader.createWebApplicationContext(ContextLoader.java:177) at org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoader.initWebApplicationContext(ContextLoader.java:105) at org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoaderListener.contextInitialized(ContextLoaderListener.java:48) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.listenerStart(StandardContext.java:3831) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.start(StandardContext.java:4323) at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.addChildInternal(ContainerBase.java:823) at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.addChild(ContainerBase.java:807) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHost.addChild(StandardHost.java:595) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHostDeployer.install(StandardHostDeployer.java:277) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHost.install(StandardHost.java:832) at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.deployWARs(HostConfig.java:625) at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.deployApps(HostConfig.java:431) at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.start(HostConfig.java:983) at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.lifecycleEvent(HostConfig.java:349) at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleSupport.fireLifecycleEvent(LifecycleSupport.java:119) at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.start(ContainerBase.java:1091) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHost.start(StandardHost.java:789) at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.start(ContainerBase.java:1083) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngine.start(StandardEngine.java:478) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardService.start(StandardService.java:480) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardServer.start(StandardServer.java:2313) at org.apache.catalina.startup.Catalina.start(Catalina.java:556) at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method) at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:39) at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:25) at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:324) at org.apache.catalina.startup.Bootstrap.start(Bootstrap.java:287) at org.apache.catalina.startup.Bootstrap.main(Bootstrap.java:425)** END NESTED EXCEPTION **'.** BEGIN NESTED EXCEPTION ** com.mysql.jdbc.CommunicationsExceptionMESSAGE: Communications link failure due to underlying exception: ** BEGIN NESTED EXCEPTION ** java.io.EOFExceptionSTACKTRACE: