diff --git a/.gitpod.Dockerfile b/.gitpod.Dockerfile
index 3ef4964e..80744b1a 100644
--- a/.gitpod.Dockerfile
+++ b/.gitpod.Dockerfile
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ COPY mysql-bashrc-launch.sh /etc/mysql/mysql-bashrc-launch.sh
 
 USER gitpod
 
-RUN echo "/etc/mariadb/mariadb-bashrc-launch.sh" >> ~/.bashrc
+RUN echo "/etc/mariadb/mysql-bashrc-launch.sh" >> ~/.bashrc
 
 RUN bash -c ". .nvm/nvm.sh \
     && nvm install 14 \
diff --git a/mysql-bashrc-launch.sh b/mysql-bashrc-launch.sh
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..b8ab933a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/mysql-bashrc-launch.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,17 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+
+# this script is intended to be called from .bashrc
+# This is a workaround for not having something like supervisord
+
+if [ ! -e /var/run/mariadb/gitpod-init.lock ]
+then
+    touch /var/run/mariadb/gitpod-init.lock
+
+    # initialize database structures on disk, if needed
+    [ ! -d /workspace/mariadb ] && mariadb --initialize-insecure
+
+    # launch database, if not running
+    [ ! -e /var/run/mariadb/mariadb.pid ] && mariadb --daemonize
+
+    rm /var/run/mariadb/gitpod-init.lock
+fi
diff --git a/mysqld.conf b/mysqld.conf
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..46207438
--- /dev/null
+++ b/mysqld.conf
@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+[client]
+host     = localhost
+user     = root
+password =
+socket   = /var/run/mariadb/mariadb.sock
+[mariadb_upgrade]
+host     = localhost
+user     = root
+password =
+socket   = /var/run/mariadb/mariadb.sock