SSH tunnels and non root accounts get "the server service or the configuration file could not be found"

Question

Server running Centos and MySQL and Client is a windows xp machine.
I have setup a SSH tunnel with putty and run mysql administrator. It works fine with the root account.

With a non-root account I get
the server service or the configuration file could not be found. I can log on but I can't see the databases that I should be allowed to see.

Running a mysql -h 127.0.0.1 -u myuser -p mypassword from linux works fine

I have created a .my.cnf file in the home folder with 600 permissions in the linux box and filled it with:

[client]
 pass='mypass'
 user=myuser

Server configuration file is under /etc/my.cnf. What am I doing wrong?

Answer 1

Your windows-based client never sees the files on the linux server. All the tunnel provides is the ability to treat port 3306 of your linux box as-if it was a port local to your windows system. It does not, can not make file access transparent across those systems.

Answer 2

If you are tunneling port 3306 to your local machine, you need to have mysql listen on the local port.

what ever port is being used on your local computer to operate the tunnel to port 3306 remotely is the port you will use for mysql locally.