When we have had problems it was easier to dump
database to sql statements,
drop database, recreate with media wiki setup with all correct settings and
restore the data without drop table instructions.
Sounds sensible. Thank you.
Unfortutately, as a consequence of one of their changes, data has
been partially lost (apparently only redirects and a few templates and
images) and I think several tables are corrupted in the sense they
contain data which shouldn't be there, so I'm even considering an
export and then and import (with history, of course) for articles and
the like, and only resort to the database for users (this table seems
ok) and the like (just brainstrorming). <sigh>
Javier