from the code and the documentation i collected this information about how and what phpMyAdmin tries to get the db list: - first it tries SHOW DATABASE for the current user - if this fails it tries it with controluser and checks against privilege tables but the documentation says only that the controlusers requires access to various `mysql`-tables - not that he also requires SHOW DATABASES privileges - without this a user with global select privileges will not see any database - or wildcards cannot expanded to real db names - if this both fails the dblist stays empty - phpMyAdmin drops all db's not in cfg[only_db] - phpMyAdmin drops db's in cfg[hide_db] - phpMyAdmin tries every db with USE DATABASE (for specific MySQL version) Questions: "Note: starting with phpMyAdmin 2.6.1, this section is only applicable if your MySQL server is older than 4.1.2, or is running with --skip-show-database." Why "is older than 4.1.2"? thinks i want to change: - if SHOW DATABASE fails try INFORMATION_SCHEMA - merge PMA_safe_db_list(), PMA_availableDatabases(), PMA_DBI_get_dblist() into a single function - if the dblist is still empty check `mysql` and `INFORMATION_SCHEMA` with USE DATABASE and add them to the list please correct me if i missed something and feel free to comment -- Sebastian Mendel www.sebastianmendel.de