mysql5 problem?

[Karl Timmermann]

>> Does name resolution work properly?
>>
>> Try to connect using localhost to another server
>> process running locally, e.g. activate personal
>> websharing in the sharing control panel and point
>> your browser to localhost. Does it show the
>> famous "it works" page? If not, stick with that.
>> Try flushcache command on your lookupd. Check
>> with your ethernet config using ifconfig and
>> post results here if you cant deal with that
>> on your own. If it is really mysql-specific,
>> then I dont know about the problem.
>
> Christian, the problem is MySQL-specific. The default hostname to  
> connect to a MySQL server is "localhost", and MySQL special-cases  
> the "localhost" hostname, bypasses the entire network stack, and  
> accesses the local MySQL server's socket file directly. Karl's  
> network probably works fine, since he said it works fine when  
> connecting via the server address 127.0.0.1, for which MySQL does  
> no special-casing, does not go directly to the socket file but  
> rather does use the TCP/IP stack.

Correct, localhost works for everything else, such as apache, etc. Is  
there a configuration setting, or a setting I can set when compiling  
MySQL to turn off this "localhost to UNIX socket feature".

Thanks,
Karl