diff --git a/system/options.nix b/system/options.nix
index 28c9e15c58f4..07f17cb98e90 100644
--- a/system/options.nix
+++ b/system/options.nix
@@ -1933,7 +1933,7 @@
       };
       
       user = mkOption {
-        default = "nobody";
+        default = "mysql";
 	description = "User account under which MySQL runs";
       };
       
@@ -1947,8 +1947,8 @@
 	description = "Location of the MySQL error logfile";
       };
       
-      pidFile = mkOption {
-        default = "/var/mysql/mysql.pid";
+      pidDir = mkOption {
+        default = "/var/run/mysql";
 	description = "Location of the file which stores the PID of the MySQL server";
       };
     };
diff --git a/upstart-jobs/mysql.nix b/upstart-jobs/mysql.nix
index 8a8f924bf17d..6756891321b6 100644
--- a/upstart-jobs/mysql.nix
+++ b/upstart-jobs/mysql.nix
@@ -1,22 +1,52 @@
-args: with args;
+{pkgs, config}:
 
 let
 
-cfg = config.services.mysql;
-mysqlService = import ../services/mysql {
-	inherit (pkgs) stdenv mysql;
-	inherit (cfg) port user dataDir
-		logError pidFile;
-};
+  cfg = config.services.mysql;
+
+  mysql = pkgs.mysql;
+
+  pidFile = "${cfg.pidDir}/mysqld.pid";
+
+  mysqldOptions =
+    "--user=${cfg.user} --datadir=${cfg.dataDir} " +
+    "--log-error=${cfg.logError} --pid-file=${pidFile}";
 
 in
+
 {
-	name = "mysql";
-	job = "
-description \"MySQL server\"
+  name = "mysql";
+  
+  users = [
+    { name = "mysql";
+      description = "MySQL server user";
+    }
+  ];
 
-stop on shutdown
+  extraPath = [mysql];
+  
+  job = ''
+    description "MySQL server"
 
-respawn ${mysqlService}/bin/control start
-	";
+    stop on shutdown
+
+    start script
+        if ! test -e ${cfg.dataDir}; then
+            mkdir -m 0700 -p ${cfg.dataDir}
+            chown -R ${cfg.user} ${cfg.dataDir}
+            ${mysql}/bin/mysql_install_db ${mysqldOptions}
+        fi
+
+        mkdir -m 0700 -p ${cfg.pidDir}
+        chown -R ${cfg.user} ${cfg.pidDir}
+    end script
+
+    respawn ${mysql}/bin/mysqld ${mysqldOptions}
+
+    stop script
+        pid=$(cat ${pidFile})
+        kill "$pid"
+        ${mysql}/bin/mysql_waitpid "$pid" 1000
+    end script
+  '';
 }