Can't get the INNODB storage engine to start with Leopard MySQL server...

Question

As shipped by apple. In the /etc/my.cnf file it says to just uncomment the stuff related to innodb and all will be well. I did that, restarted the Mysql server and when I take a look at the available storage engines using phpmyadmin, innodb is turned off...
The following SQL runs:
CREATE TABLE `Puzzles` (
`id` int(10) unsigned NOT NULL auto_increment,
`initialState` char(81) NOT NULL default '',
`solution` char(81) NOT NULL default '',
`levelOfDifficulty` int(11) NOT NULL default '5',
`numberOfClues` smallint(5) unsigned NOT NULL default '0',
PRIMARY KEY (`id`),
UNIQUE KEY `initialState` (`initialState`),
KEY `levelOfDifficulty` (`levelOfDifficulty`),
KEY `numberOfClues` (`numberOfClues`)
) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1 AUTO_INCREMENT=780 ;
But when I look at the table, it's a MyIsam table.
Heres the innodb part of the /etc/my.cnf file:
# Uncomment the following if you are using InnoDB tables
innodbdata_homedir = /var/mysql/
innodbdata_filepath = ibdata1:2000M;ibdata2:10M:autoextend
innodblog_group_homedir = /var/mysql/
innodblog_archdir = /var/mysql/
# You can set ..buffer_poolsize up to 50 - 80 %
# of RAM but beware of setting memory usage too high
innodbbuffer_poolsize = 384M
innodbadditional_mem_poolsize = 20M
# Set ..log_filesize to 25 % of buffer pool size
innodblog_filesize = 100M
innodblog_buffersize = 8M
innodbflush_log_at_trxcommit = 1
innodblock_waittimeout = 50
No errors in the logs visible through Server Admin. Did Apple put the MySQL configuration files somewhere non-standard and leave the /etc/my.cnf file around to fool us?
Any pointers will be helpful or should I just build the fink package and give up on the shipped Leopard package (so far I'm not too impressed with Leopard).
Best,
Dick Munroe

Answer 1

The problem turned out to be the sizes of the INNODB log and data files. Apparently, the initial startup of MySQL causes these files to be built. The numbers that you uncomment in the my.cnf file aren't related in any way to these sizes and the innodb storage engine won't start unless they match. Stop the server, delete the files, and restart the server and you're off and running. The logs on Leopard Server have NO indication that this has occurred. I found the problem by installing the Mac OS kit from mysql.com and looking in those logs. Interesting question is why that information is missing from the log for Leopard Server when the information is clearly available (as show by running the mysql server).
Best,
Dick Munroe