to install MYSQL server in debian just send this command at the shell:

apt-get install mysql-server mysql-client
The installer will start to download and install the necessary files/dependencies
apt-get install mysql-server mysql-client

The installer will ask you to setup a root password for security, so make sure to setup a pasword for your mysql server

Configuring mysql-server-5.0
It is highly recommended that you set a password for the MySQL administrative root user.

If you don not provide a password no changes will be made to the account.

New password my Mysql root user:

************
Ok

I answered Yes because i am running a sarge server here.

Configuring mysql-server-5.0
The way passwords were stored was not very sercure. This has been improved with the drawback that clients (eg. PHP) from hosts running Debian 3.1 Sarge will not be able to connect to account which are new and whose password have been changed. See /user/share/doc/mysql-server-5.0/README.Debian

Support MySQL connections from hosts running Debian sarge or older?
<Yes> <No>

If for some reason the installer does not prompt you to enter a root password, you can always set it by using this command:
mysqladmin -u root password ********
NOTE: ******** = whatever password you set so don't type the little starts. please!

next, if you want to install apache web server CLICK HERE