after just emerging dev-db/mysql-4.0.14-r2, the init.d (/etc/init.d/mysqld) file is wrong. it lists in the start() function "/usr/bin/safe_mysqld >/dev/null 2>&1 &" where it should be "/usr/bin/mysqld_safe >/dev/null 2>&1 &" Reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: 1. just edit the init.d file. 2. 3. jforman@tribeca jforman $ emerge info Portage 2.0.49-r15 (default-x86-1.4, gcc-3.2.3, glibc-2.3.2-r3, 2.6.0-test10-mm1) ================================================================= System uname: 2.6.0-test10-mm1 i686 Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.80GHz Gentoo Base System version 1.4.3.10p1 distcc 2.11.1 i686-pc-linux-gnu (protocols 1 and 2) (default port 3632) [disabled] ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="x86" AUTOCLEAN="yes" CFLAGS="-O3 -march=pentium4 -pipe" CHOST="i686-pc-linux-gnu" COMPILER="gcc3" CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc /var/qmail/control /usr/kde/2/share/config /usr/kde/3/share/config /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xkb /usr/kde/3.1/share/config /usr/share/texmf/tex/generic/config/ /usr/share/texmf/tex/platex/config/ /usr/share/config" CONFIG_PROTECT_MASK="/etc/gconf /etc/env.d" CXXFLAGS="-O3 -march=pentium4 -pipe" DISTDIR="/usr/portage/distfiles" FEATURES="sandbox ccache autoaddcvs" GENTOO_MIRRORS="ftp://ftp.snt.utwente.nl/pub/os/linux/gentoo http://gentoo.oregonstate.edu/" MAKEOPTS="-j2" PKGDIR="/usr/portage/packages" PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/var/tmp" PORTDIR="/usr/portage" PORTDIR_OVERLAY="" SYNC="rsync://rsync.gentoo.org/gentoo-portage" USE="x86 oss apm avi crypt encode foomaticdb gif jpeg libg++ mad mikmod mpeg ncurses nls pdflib png quicktime spell truetype xml2 xmms xv zlib gtkhtml gdbm berkdb slang readline tetex bonobo svga java guile sdl gpm tcpd pam libwww ssl perl python esd imlib oggvorbis gtk motif opengl mozilla gphoto2 ldap cdr X alsa cups -gnome qt -kde pda -arts ipv6 gtk2 -mysql"
sounds like you didn't do etc-update properly. This bug was fixed a very long time ago.