mysql error : ERROR 1018 (HY000): Can't read dir of '.' (errno: 13)

Question

when i try to view the databases in mysql i get this error:

ERROR 1018 (HY000): Can\'t read dir of \'.\' (errno: 13)

And that stops my app

Answer 1

You need to set ownership and permissions for directory:

chown -R mysql:mysql /var/lib/mysql/ #your mysql user may have different name
chmod -R 755 /var/lib/mysql/

Note: -R makes commands recursive - you may omit it, if there is no subdirs in /var/lib/mysql/.