Installing MySQL 4.1 Server on Ubuntu is a quick and easy process. It almost feels like it should be more difficult.

Open a terminal window, and use the following command:

sudo apt-get install mysql-server-4.1

If you are running PHP you will also need to install the php module for mysql 4:

sudo apt-get install php4-mysql

To create a new database, use the mysqladmin command:

mysqladmin create

See, really easy!