OK, I think we've solved this one.
Procedure:
[root@obsidian ~]# urpme MySQL-client MySQL MySQL-common
[root@obsidian ~]# mv /var/lib/mysql /var/lib/mysql.old
[root@obsidian ~]# urpmi MySQL-client-5.0.27-3mdv2007.1 MySQL-5.0.27-3mdv2007.1
MySQL-common-5.0.27-3mdv2007.1
This series of packages were the problem children:
MySQL-5.0.24a-2mdv2007.0.x86_64
Version differences between them are:
5.0.24a vrs 5.0.27
and
3mdv2007.1 vrs 2mdv2007.0
So in the future use : 5.0.27-3mdv2007.1 or later.
Configuration seems (so far) to proceed normally beyond this point.
Thanks again, Dave G.
2 messages in com.mysql.lists.mysql[ SOLVED I think ] Re: Mandriva 2007 ...