After wiping my computer and installing 10.6 from scratch, my local php/mysql would not work at all.  The biggest problem was that I was receiving an error when trying to connect to mySQL “Lost connection to MySQL server at ‘reading initial communication packet’, system error: 61″.

It turns our that in MAMP Pro 1.8, they left out the local bind-address declaration, which for some reason freaks out the default PHP/Apache setup.

So, if you are running Snow Leopard and MAMP Pro and can’t connect to your mySQL, it’s an easy fix.  In MAMP Pro edit your my.cnf template (File > Edit Template) .  Add this line somewhere after the “[mysqld]” declaration (and reload) – Everything should be good.

bind-address = 127.0.0.1