There is a default my.cnf that comes with mysql (4+5) that will make mysql run a bit quicker if you have 2+ gig of ram
cp -f /usr/share/mysql/my-large.cnf /etc/my.cnf
There is also my-huge.cnf, or my-medium.cnf depending on your hardware setup. Â Check the contents of these my*.cnf files for the one that's right for you.If you've got mysql 4 (and not mysql 5), then you can use the following code in your /etc/my.cnf:
Referenced from the Forum
vi /etc/my.cnf [ENTER]
Press 'i' to enter insert mode, then paste:[mysqld]
local-infile=0
skip-locking
query_cache_limit=1M
query_cache_size=32M
query_cache_type=1
max_connections=500
interactive_timeout=100
wait_timeout=100
connect_timeout=10
thread_cache_size=128
key_buffer=16M
join_buffer=1M
max_allowed_packet=16M
table_cache=1024
record_buffer=1M
sort_buffer_size=2M
read_buffer_size=2M
max_connect_errors=10
# Try number of CPU's*2 for thread_concurrency
thread_concurrency=2
myisam_sort_buffer_size=64M
server-id=1
[safe_mysqld]
err-log=/var/log/mysqld.log
open_files_limit=8192
[mysqldump]
quick
max_allowed_packet=16M
[mysql]
no-auto-rehash
#safe-updates
[isamchk]
key_buffer=64M
sort_buffer=64M
read_buffer=16M
write_buffer=16M
[myisamchk]
key_buffer=64M
sort_buffer=64M
read_buffer=16M
write_buffer=16M
[mysqlhotcopy]
interactive-timeout
Redhat:
/sbin/service mysqld restart
FreeBSD:
/usr/local/etc/rc.d/mysqld restart