diff --git a/brew-formulas.txt b/brew-formulas.txt
index 0aed9645d0..b5b555e2a0 100644
--- a/brew-formulas.txt
+++ b/brew-formulas.txt
@@ -7,3 +7,4 @@ python
 yuicompressor 
 node
 graphviz
+mysql
diff --git a/create-dev-env.sh b/create-dev-env.sh
index 5691315039..f1d496a48f 100755
--- a/create-dev-env.sh
+++ b/create-dev-env.sh
@@ -105,7 +105,7 @@ NUMPY_VER="1.6.2"
 SCIPY_VER="0.10.1"
 BREW_FILE="$BASE/mitx/brew-formulas.txt"
 LOG="/var/tmp/install-$(date +%Y%m%d-%H%M%S).log"
-APT_PKGS="pkg-config curl git python-virtualenv build-essential python-dev gfortran liblapack-dev libfreetype6-dev libpng12-dev libxml2-dev libxslt-dev yui-compressor coffeescript graphviz graphviz-dev"
+APT_PKGS="pkg-config curl git python-virtualenv build-essential python-dev gfortran liblapack-dev libfreetype6-dev libpng12-dev libxml2-dev libxslt-dev yui-compressor coffeescript graphviz graphviz-dev mysql-server libmysqlclient-dev"
 
 if [[ $EUID -eq 0 ]]; then
     error "This script should not be run using sudo or as the root user"
@@ -193,7 +193,8 @@ case `uname -s` in
             maya|lisa|natty|oneiric|precise|quantal)
                 output "Installing ubuntu requirements"
                 sudo apt-get -y update
-                sudo apt-get -y install $APT_PKGS
+                # DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive is required for silent mysql-server installation
+                sudo DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive apt-get -y install $APT_PKGS
                 clone_repos
                 ;;
             *)
diff --git a/pre-requirements.txt b/pre-requirements.txt
index 24ce15ab7e..6eb4669059 100644
--- a/pre-requirements.txt
+++ b/pre-requirements.txt
@@ -1 +1,2 @@
 numpy
+distribute>=0.6.28