To disable safe mode:
hadoop dfsadmin -safemode leave
To configure your hive-site.xml to use MySQL:
<property>
<name>javax.jdo.option.ConnectionURL</name>
<value>jdbc:mysql://127.0.0.1/metastore?createDatabaseIfNotExist=true</value>
<description>JDBC connect string for a JDBC metastore</description>
</property>
<property>
<name>javax.jdo.option.ConnectionDriverName</name>
<value>com.mysql.jdbc.Driver</value>
<description>Driver class name for a JDBC metastore</description>
</property>
<property>
<name>javax.jdo.option.ConnectionUserName</name>
<value>hive</value>
</property>
<property>
<name>javax.jdo.option.ConnectionPassword</name>
<value>hive</value>
</property>