SuSE

That is, quote the output of

ls -l /var/lib/mysql
ls -l /var/log

This shows the list of files inside these directories together with their permission as well as owner/group.

Cbkihong:
Thanks for your help but my problems have gone from bad to worse. Yast has a problem aswel the "Install and Remove software" doesn't open now. I found some infor on the net about it; its probably to do with the updates i did. I didn't have a lot on the box, i'm going to reinstall SUSE hopefully most of my problems will be solved.

Thanks again for your help.
Will come back if it doesn't work.

regards,
sybella.