The plugin_load test fails on PPC64 (maybe not always, but at least in the several tries I've made so far). It doesn't fail on x86, x86_64, or ppc, at least not in a similarly small number of tries. My best theory at the moment is that the test itself is wrong. Reported upstream at http://bugs.mysql.com/bug.php?id=42144 For the moment, just disable this test. diff -Naur mysql-5.1.31.orig/mysql-test/t/disabled.def mysql-5.1.31/mysql-test/t/disabled.def --- mysql-5.1.31.orig/mysql-test/t/disabled.def 2009-01-19 12:11:19.000000000 -0500 +++ mysql-5.1.31/mysql-test/t/disabled.def 2009-02-13 14:23:55.000000000 -0500 @@ -14,3 +14,5 @@ wait_timeout_func : Bug #41225 joro wait_timeout_func fails kill : Bug#37780 2008-12-03 HHunger need some changes to be robust enough for pushbuild. query_cache_28249 : Bug#41098 Query Cache returns wrong result with concurrent insert +# +plugin_load : gives wrong answer on PPC64