found a solution to admin issue on linux install

[RodG]

yes that makes sense honestly i didnt think about having the admin on a different server, that is a nice feature and would justify the two configs for sure, thanks for pointing that out.

Yet another possibility for this is the ZenCart was based on the OsCommerce code (which also has the two config files) so the *real* reason for it is unknown to the ZenCart developers, but since it has several potential benefits there has never been a need/reason to adopt a single config file system.

Just fyi.. .mysql 5.5 and php 5.4.31

Also just a FYI, the code(s) you posted earlier both worked fine on my test DB running MySQL V5.5.38.
I do/also suspect that the issue is somehow related to MySQL versions though.

Cheers
RodG