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-5.1.36.orig/mysql-test/t/disabled.def mysql-5.1.36/mysql-test/t/disabled.def --- mysql-5.1.36.orig/mysql-test/t/disabled.def 2009-06-16 09:43:04.000000000 -0400 +++ mysql-5.1.36/mysql-test/t/disabled.def 2009-07-10 22:00:42.000000000 -0400 @@ -12,3 +12,5 @@ kill : Bug#37780 2008-12-03 HHunger need some changes to be robust enough for pushbuild. innodb_bug39438 : Bug#42383 2009-01-28 lsoares "This fails in embedded and on windows. Note that this test is not run on windows and on embedded in PB for main trees currently" query_cache_28249 : Bug#43861 2009-03-25 main.query_cache_28249 fails sporadically +# +plugin_load : gives wrong answer on PPC64