errors confirming cyrus-sasl2 setup

[Ray]

Hello,
I am having a problem with the cyrus-sasl2 sample client/server test system.
My problem is very similar to one that was on this list early January, 2006.
http://asg.web.cmu.edu/archive/search.php?mailbox=archive.cyrus-sasl&searchterm=cyrus-sasl2+mysql+postfix+freebsd+problem
just to sumarize postfix - cyrus-sasl2 - mysql - freeBSD based on Hildebrandt 
and Koetter.
I quess the first question is am I correct in saying: the sample server/client 
tests depend only on the cyrus-sasl2 program, the sample programs themselves, 
the sample.conf file, and any backend required? (In my case, mySQL.) 

I start the server program with 
server -s rcmd -p 8000
and the client with
client -s rcmd -p 8000 -m PLAIN 127.0.0.1

my example.conf file:
(located at /usr/local/lib/sasl2/sample.conf)

# Global parameters reset to 1 or 2 for production server
log_level: 3
pwcheck_method: auxprop
mech_list: PLAIN LOGIN
#auxiliary Plugin parameters
auxprop_plugin: sasldb [I have also tried sql]
sql_engine: mysql
sql_hostnames: localhost
sql_database: --removed--
sql_user: --removed--
sql_passwd: --removed--
sql_select: SELECT userpassword FROM virtual_users WHERE username = '%u'
sql_usessl: no

The output from the server shows the userame entered and the password entered 
but authentication fails.
Any help appreciated.
Ray