MySQL 5.5 InnoDB = OFF

I have finally found the answer, and it was [unsurprisingly] staring me in the face the whole time...

I had inherited the system from an earlier admin, who had made a mistake in the my.cnf file putting all the InnoDB specific parameters under a [innodb] heading, instead of under the [mysqld] heading where it should be.

Why did this take so long to locate? It was assumed that the config was working correctly in the first place. [slaps head]...

Incorrect file segment

[mysqld]
# Stuff here

[innodb]
# innodb stuff here

Correct file segment

[mysqld]
# Stuff here

# innodb stuff here

And now everything works as intended.

To disable InnoDB, add this to /etc/my.cnf on the MySQL 5.5. slave:

[mysqld]
skip-innodb

and run this on the Slave:

service mysql restart

According to MySQL Documentation on CREATE TABLE :

You can create one table from another by adding a SELECT statement at the end of the CREATE TABLE statement:

CREATE TABLE new_tbl SELECT * FROM orig_tbl; For more information, see Section 13.1.17.1, “CREATE TABLE ... SELECT Syntax”.

Use LIKE to create an empty table based on the definition of another table, including any column attributes and indexes defined in the original table:

CREATE TABLE new_tbl LIKE orig_tbl;

The copy is created using the same version of the table storage format as the original table. The SELECT privilege is required on the original table.

You must specify the ENGINE upon creation

CREATE TEMPORARY TABLE ... ENGINE=MyISAM SELECT ...

to get around this problem