phpbb/mySQL help

[Sir Tahngarth]

i dont really know much abouy MySQL (i just installed it and php and basically got it working), and im trying to set up phpbb on my machine (i'm just experimenting) the install script page for phpbb says you need to have a database that already exists... but i actually dont know how to do this. can someone help me with this? heres where I stand:
Apache 2 webserver installed and functioning(with a default configuration other than the lines added to enable PHP)
PHP installed and functioning (otherwise the phpbb install page wouldnt have come up, right)
MySQL 4 installed. the server service is functioning, and accessible from the mysql client, but other than that I have no idea of the state its in. (username for the mysql database seems to be ODBC, no password. how do I configure this??) I've been looking over the mysql documentation, but it hasnt been going so well, as you can see )

-edit- I finally got the phpbb initial configuration to go. turns out i just had the hostname wrong.

(i'm assuming one of you admins is a phpbb/mysql god )

[Sir Tahngarth]

now the board keeps saying "please ensure that the install and contrib directories have been deleted" even after I have deleted them. whats making it say this?

[MassChAoS]

Nah, we're not phpbb experts.