can't connect to mysql database

hi list, I'm new to this list and I maybe I'm asking some dumb question already answered a hundred times. At least I've consulted deja.com in vain. Platform is Sun Solaris 2.6, Apache 1.3.14, and php-4.0.4pl1. I've build Apache and the php module according the php INSTALL file. I decided for the static module and everything went smoothly without any compilation errors. However, it looks like the php module can't connect to the mysql database. The script falo.php: <?php $link = mysql_connect ("localhost:3306", "root", PASSWORD") or die ("Could not connect"); print ("Connected successfully"); mysql_close ($link); ?> always returns a Warning: MySQL Connection Failed: Can't initialize character set 12 (path: default) in /usr/local/apache/hosts/www.blutmagie.de/data/tools/myphpadmin/falo.php on line 2 Could not connect The mysql database can be accessed on the same machine from cli without any problems: root@www [/usr/local/apache/hosts/www.blutmagie.de/data/tools/myphpadmin] >>mysql -uroot -pPASSWORD Welcome to the MySQL monitor. Commands end with ; or \g. Your MySQL connection id is 111 to server version: 3.23.23-beta Type 'help;' or '\h' for help. mysql> show databases; +----------+ | Database | +----------+ | mysql | | sympoll | | test | +----------+ 3 rows in set (0.01 sec) What am I missing or what's going wrong here and how can I fix it? You can access my php script directly from http://www.blutmagie.de/tools/myphpadmin/falo.php Olaf -- Olaf Selke, Olaf.Selke@mediaWays.net, voice +49 5246 80-1169