--- gdal-1.2.5/configure.in.orig	2005-01-16 03:01:31.252567000 +0100
+++ gdal-1.2.5/configure.in	2005-01-16 03:09:32.131462448 +0100
@@ -1111,9 +1111,9 @@
       AC_MSG_ERROR([--with-mysql argument is a not an executable file.  It should be the path to the mysql_config script, often somewhere like /usr/local/bin/mysql_config.])
   fi
 
-  MYSQL_VERSION="`$MYSQL_CONFIG --version`"
+  MYSQL_VERSION="`$MYSQL_CONFIG --version | cut -d . -f 1`"
 
-  if test ${MYSQL_VERSION:0:1} -ge 4 ; then
+  if test ${MYSQL_VERSION} -ge 4 ; then
       HAVE_MYSQL=yes
       MYSQL_LIB="`$MYSQL_CONFIG --libs`"
       MYSQL_INC="`$MYSQL_CONFIG --include`"
@@ -1388,7 +1388,8 @@
 if test "$GEOS_CONFIG" != "no" ; then
 
   VERSION=`$GEOS_CONFIG --version`
-  if test "${VERSION:0:1}" -lt 2 ; then
+  MAJORVER=`echo $VERSION | cut -d . -f 1`
+  if test $MAJORVER -lt 2 ; then
     AC_MSG_ERROR([geos-config reports version $VERSION, need at least 2.0 or configure --without-geos])
   fi