MySQLソースインストールといっしょ。

https://downloads.mariadb.org/mariadb/5.5.30/
から mariadb-5.5.30.tar.gz をダウンロード。

解凍して、
cmake .
make
make install
で、
/usr/local/mysql/
配下にインストールされる。

scripts/mysql_install_db --user=mysql --basedir=/usr/local/mysql/ --datadir=/usr/local/mysql/data/

cp support-files/my-medium.cnf /etc/my.cnf

で、起動
# bin/mysqld_safe --user=mysql &
[1] 19069
[root@localhost mysql]# 130312 14:11:30 mysqld_safe Logging to '/usr/local/mysql/data/localhost.localdomain.err'.
130312 14:11:30 mysqld_safe Starting mysqld daemon with databases from /usr/local/mysql/data

# bin/mysql
Welcome to the MariaDB monitor. Commands end with ; or \g.
Your MariaDB connection id is 1
Server version: 5.5.30-MariaDB-log Source distribution

Copyright (c) 2000, 2013, Oracle, Monty Program Ab and others.

Type 'help;' or '\h' for help. Type '\c' to clear the current input statement.

MariaDB [(none)]> status
--------------
bin/mysql Ver 15.1 Distrib 5.5.30-MariaDB, for Linux (x86_64) using readline 5.1

Connection id: 1
Current database:
Current user: root@localhost
SSL: Not in use
Current pager: stdout
Using outfile: ''
Using delimiter: ;
Server: MariaDB
Server version: 5.5.30-MariaDB-log Source distribution
Protocol version: 10
Connection: Localhost via UNIX socket
Server characterset: latin1
Db characterset: latin1
Client characterset: utf8
Conn. characterset: utf8
UNIX socket: /tmp/mysql.sock
Uptime: 28 sec

Threads: 1 Questions: 4 Slow queries: 0 Opens: 0 Flush tables: 2 Open tables: 26 Queries per second avg: 0.142
--------------