MySQL Forums :: Install :: "mysql_connect(): Client does not support authentication protocol requested by server; consider upgrading MySQL client"

This doesn't make any sense. In my experience, this error only occurs when the MySQL Server is >=4.1, and the client is <=4.0. Are you absolutely certain you are not connecting to another instance of MySQL Server on this host or another host?

Regardless of what RPM says is installed, the actual files may be different if someone has upgraded them. Or there could be a separate instance of MySQL under a different directory, which is the actual one running, and the instance supplied by the RPM could be idle. Find out the version of mysqld by running "mysqld --version". Make sure you're invoking the binary that is actually run by the service init script, in case it's not the same binary that was supplied in the RPM. "find / -name mysqld" might be in order.

As for the my.ini/my.cnf issue... right, by default there may be no such file on your system. The absence of the file means that only defaults are used. Note that the "old_passwords" option should be placed in a group within the file under a "[mysqld]" heading. See http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/4.1/en/option-files.html for information on the location(s) of my.cnf, and the options group notation.

Regards,
Bill K.