I'm running mysql 4.1.7 on a RHES box. Today, I needed to restore a
database from a mysqlhotcopy from the previous day. I gunzip the
archive, stop mysql, copy the database into /var/lib/mysql. I gave
mysql user the correct permissions for the db and also verified
ownership and start up mysql and I get the following error:

"Can't read dir of './mydatabase/' (Errorcode: 13)"

I know you are thinking permissions but it's not, trust me. I've done:

chown -R mysql:mysql /var/lib/mysql/mydatabsae
chmod -R u+rwx /var/lib/mysql/mydatabase
chmod -R go-rwx /var/lib/mysql/mydatabase

Any help is appreciated