DBD::mysql requires the mysql client and development headers to build (DBD::mysql::INSTALL->Prerequisites -> MySQL). Your difference in Strawberry perl builds with relation to mysql alone is the version of these (and the DBD::mysql module). Take for example v5.28.1 with mysql-5.7.16 and DBD::mysql 4.049 and v5.16 with mysql-5.1.44 and DBD::mysql v4.020.

The approach you should take is have your database updated to a modern version of mysql, it looks like your mysql server is dangerously old.

Update: See also MariaDB/DBD::MariaDB, TPC 2018 - DBD::MariaDB (The Perl Conference - Glasgow 2018 - Individual videos now live links to lightning talks).

Run this program (with your credentials) on both old and new perls and post the results so we can see which versions you have.

#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use DBI;

my $dbh = get_dbh();
my ($ver) = $dbh->selectrow_array('SELECT VERSION()');
printf "OS         : %s\n",$^O;
printf "Perl       : %s\n",$^V;
printf "DBD::MySQL : %s\n",$DBD::mysql::VERSION;
printf "Server     : %s\n",$ver;

sub get_dbh {

  my $server   = 'localhost';
  my $database = "pm"; 
  my $user = "user"; 
  my $pw   = "password";
  my $dsn  = "dbi:mysql:$database:$server:3306"; 
  my $dbh  = DBI->connect($dsn, $user, $pw, 
     { RaiseError=>1, AutoCommit=>1 } );
  return $dbh;
}
[download]

The output with my 5.24 perl is

OS         : MSWin32
Perl       : v5.24.0
DBD::MySQL : 4.033
Server     : 5.5.53-0+deb7u1-log
[download]

With the portable 5.28 perl (and a few changes in the code)

OS         : MSWin32
Perl       : v5.28.1
DBD::MySQL :
DBI connect('...:3306',...,...) failed: Authentication plugin 'mysql_o
+ld_password' cannot be loaded: The specified module could not be foun
+d.
 at get_version.pl line 21.
[download]

Just an FYI, mysql server v5.5 went out of support in December 2018, v8 is the current release.

Is the perl 5.24 also portable strawberry and is it on the same machine as your new 5.28 ?

poj

Ask what the length is of the string in the user.password field

SELECT LENGTH(PASSWORD) FROM USER 
WHERE USER = 'yourusername'

Result: 16

Ok, looks like server has been upgraded from a pre 4.1 version.

Run this query to check if server is running with old_passwords=1

SELECT PASSWORD('anyword');

The result should be either

1483f47e284cee10 
or
*DEFC3C96B99362885AD525B7AD2A5F02EED43E57

poj