Hello everyone,

I am trying to install MariaDB locally on a Windows XP desktop machine
for testing purposes. We have a server coming (eventually), but I would
like to get started in the meantime. There does not seem to be much
information on installing and configuring MariaDB on Windows for use
with the MySQL Workbench.

Here are the steps I have taken so far:

Installed MariaDB on windows:

1. Downloaded and ran MariaDB-5.2.4-win32-alt.exe

Created MariaDB my.ini configuration file

2. Copied C:\Program Files\MariaDB 5.2.4\my-large.ini
3. Pasted to C:\Program Files\MariaDB 5.2.4\my.ini with no modifications

Created a Windows Service for MariaDB named MySQL and start that service on Windows:

4. Start > Run > cmd.exe (open a command prompt)
5. cd C:\Program Files\MariaDB 5.2.4\bin
6. mysqld.exe --install MariaDB --defaults-file="C:\Program Files\MariaDB 5.2.4\my.ini" (got message "service was installed successfully", also see service listed in the "Services" window.
7. net start MariaDB (Service shows as started in "Services" window)

Installed MySQL Workbench:

8. Downloaded and ran mysql-workbench-gpl-5.2.31a-win32.msi

Set up MariaDB Server on MySQL Workbench:

9. Start MySQL Workbench and select "Create New Server Instance"
10. Made sure "Path to configuration file" under "Windows Management" pointed to: C:\Program Files\MariaDB 5.2.4\my.ini
11. Named the new server instance "MariaDB"
12. Double clicked the new server instance "MariaDB" after it was created.

Got what appear to be success messages:

2011-02-17 15:23:47 - Workbench will use cmd shell commands to start/stop this instance

2011-02-17 15:23:47 - Status check of service 'MariaDB' returned running

2011-02-17 15:23:48 - Server is running

2011-02-17 15:34:10 - Status check of service 'MariaDB' returned running

Questions:

1. Is there anything else I should do to configure MariaDB for use under Windows?
2. Almost all tabs under the "Configuration" section are blank in MySQL Workbench for the ner server instance MariaDB. This was not the case when I was running MySQL 5.1.53 on Windows. Is this normal? If not, can it be resolved?

Thanks!

Jake Drew