As I understand it, confirmed here[1], MySQL interprets "localhost" and "127.0.0.1" differently; the former uses Unix sockets if available where the latter uses TCP/IP. That ought not affect the privileges, as far as I know, but it might have some bearing that I can't think of? Also, what does /etc/hosts have for 127.0.0.1? Some distros used to have localhost.localdomain rather than localhost, and changing them to localhost has been known to assist[2] [1] http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=BL0NNoFPuAQC&pg=PA533&lpg=PA533&dq=mysql+... [2] http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=s_87mv-Eo4AC&pg=PA282&lpg=PA282&dq=mysql+... -- Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0845 45 89 555 Registered in England (0456 0902) at 13 Clarke Rd, Milton Keynes, MK1 1LG