Sim você poderia fazer assim: um mysqldump das bases que vc já tem, remover os pacotes com o yum remove, instalar os pacotes novos como te coloquei e aí restaurar as bases. :D

 

 

Olá Marcelo, obrigado pela resposta.

Realmente, desta maneira não havia tentado. Fiz o teste agora a tarde, e infelizmente não foi possível fazer a atualização. Segue a saída do comando:

# rpm -Uvh MySQL-client-community-5.1.41-0.rhel5.i386.rpm MySQL-server-community-5.1.41-0.rhel5.i386.rpm MySQL-shared-compat-5.1.41-0.rhel5.i386.rpm
A preparar...               ########################################### [100%]
   1:MySQL-shared-compat    ########################################### [ 33%]

******************************************************************
A MySQL server package (mysql-server-5.0.77-3.el5) is installed.

The current MySQL server package is provided by a different
vendor (CentOS) than MySQL AB or Sun Microsystems, Inc..
Some files may be installed to different locations, including log
files and the service startup script in /etc/init.d/.

Upgrading directly from MySQL 5.0 to MySQL 5.1 may not
be safe in all cases.  A manual dump and restore using mysqldump is
recommended.  It is important to review the MySQL manual's Upgrading
section for version-specific incompatibilities.

A manual upgrade is required.

- Ensure that you have a complete, working backup of your data and my.cnf
  files
- Shut down the MySQL server cleanly
- Remove the existing MySQL packages.  Usually this command will
  list the packages you should remove:
  rpm -qa | grep -i '^mysql-'

  You may choose to use 'rpm --nodeps -ev <package-name>' to remove
  the package which contains the mysqlclient shared library.  The
  library will be reinstalled by the MySQL-shared-compat package.
- Install the new MySQL packages supplied by Sun Microsystems, Inc.
- Ensure that the MySQL server is started
- Run the 'mysql_upgrade' program

This is a brief description of the upgrade process.  Important details
can be found in the MySQL manual, in the Upgrading section.
******************************************************************
erro: %pre(MySQL-server-community-5.1.41-0.rhel5.i386) scriptlet failed, exit status 1
erro:   install: %pre scriptlet failed (2), skipping MySQL-server-community-5.1.41-0.rhel5
   2:MySQL-client-community ########################################### [ 67%]


Pelo que pude perceber, o problema se dá porque a minha instalação do mysql foi feita via YUM, como citei no meu primeiro e-mail.

Sendo assim, o único método que poderei utilizar é a remoção do Mysql instalado via YUM e a instalação do RPM. Este processo eu testei e funcionou corretamente.

Obrigado a todos pela ajuda.

[]s
    Fábio Jr.