Fix: Can't connect to local MySQL server through socket'/var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock'(2)

[Outofmymindyo]

Just wanted to post this possible fix for people that are getting the following error when trying to start/restart MySQL, as this procedure worked perfectly for me.

Can't connect to local MySQL server through socket '/var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock' (2)

This is the procedure I followed:

Techy: Login as root to WHM and look at the service status
Techy: See what all is red
Me: just eximstats and MySQL right now
Techy: Look in /var/lib/mysql
Me: there's more than one .err file
Techy: ls -l|grep err


Me: -rw-rw----    1 nobody   root         1227 May  5 09:21 C0001-planetXeonimaging.err 
 -rw-rw----    1 nobody   root         1227 Jun 20 13:53 C0001-planetXeonRH9CP.err 
 -rw-rw----    1 nobody   root         3915 Jun 26 02:24 domain.err 
 -rw-rw----    1 mysql    root        13080 Jun 26 07:56 hostname.domain.com.err 
 -rw-rw----    1 nobody   root         4068 Apr 29 18:29 localhost.localdomain.err


Techy: Look in hostname.domain.err
Techy: Show me the last lines of that file


Me: 040626 08:05:27  mysqld started 
 040626  8:05:27  Can't start server : Bind on unix socket: Permission denied 
 040626  8:05:27  Do you already have another mysqld server running on socket: /var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock ? 
 040626  8:05:27  Aborting 
  
 040626  8:05:27  /usr/sbin/mysqld: Shutdown Complete 
  
 040626 08:05:27  mysqld ended


Techy: ps aux|grep mysql


Me: root     14658  0.0  0.0  3580  632 pts/2    S    08:06   0:00 grep mysql


Techy: rm /var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock
Techy: service mysql start


Me: rm: cannot lstat `/var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock': No such file or directory


Techy: cd /var/lib
Techy: ls -l|grep mysql


Me: drwxr-x--x   88 nobody   root         4096 Jun 26 08:05 mysql/


Me: is that supposed to be that way?
Techy: Checking
Me: k
Techy: chown mysql:root mysql mysql
Techy: errr
Techy: chown mysql:root mysql
Techy: service mysql start
Me: shall i run that chown command in the top directory?
Me: or just the var/lib?
Techy: In /var/lib
Me: ok, ran service mysql start
Me: no confirmation or errors
Techy: ps aux|grep mysql
Me: WHM doesn't show it as running


Me: root     14696  0.0  0.1  4196 1180 pts/2    S    08:11   0:00 /bin/sh /usr/bin/mysqld_safe --datadir=/var/lib/mysql --pid-file=/var/lib/mysql/hostname.domain.com.pid 
 mysql    14716  0.2  1.1 31208 11604 pts/2   S    08:11   0:00 /usr/sbin/mysqld --basedir=/ --datadir=/var/lib/mysql --user=mysql --pid-file=/var/lib/mysql/g 
 eekland.domain.com.pid --skip-locking 
 root     14744  0.0  0.0  3576  632 pts/2    S    08:12   0:00 grep mysql


Techy: chskervd will pick it up in a few minutes