google told me different things about installing gnucash on debian squeeze by storing its data in a mysql database. Here is my way to get it working.

First have a look in gnucash at File -> Save As… if you find a Data Format “mysql”. This will only be shown if the mysql-server and the MySQL database server driver for libdbi (libdbd-mysql) is installed. To install them do this:

~$ sudo aptitude install mysql-server-5.1 libdbd-mysql

Then add an account for gnucash to the MySQL-server :

~$ mysql -u root -p
mysql> CREATE USER 'gncuser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'yourpw';
mysql> GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON *.* TO 'gncuser'@'localhost';
mysql> exit
~$

Now start gnucash, open your file and “file -> Save As.. mysql” with Username: “gncuser” and Password: “yourpw”. Maybe you will choose a different Database name then the default “gnucash”.

That’s it.