Can't connect to local MySQL server through socket

Can you confirm MySQL is online?

In SSH simply type:

Code:

# mysql

Does it bring up mysql prompt:

Code:

mysql>

or throw an error?

Also what does this give you:

Code:

# ll /var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock

 

mysql log did you check?

tail -f /var/lib/mysql/hostname.err

 

I think you didn't started your database server, start it using

#services mysql start
or
#/etc/init.d/mysql start


If you are getting a failure message while starting, check the log file (/var/log/syslog), if you found socket connection error message there, then
check for correct socket file location #find / -type s, if you found a mysqld.sock file under /var/run/mysqld/ directory, check whether any instances of mysqld running or not #netstat -anpt | grep 3306 or #ps aux | grep mysqld if you found any running process stop it (#kill -9 pid) and remove the socket file. Then try to restart it and if mysql not creating socket file then try start it like

#/usr/sbin/mysqld --defaults-file=/etc/mysql/my.cnf --basedir=/usr --datadir=/var/lib/mysql --pid-file=/var/run/mysqld/mysqld.pid --socket=/var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock

Also check your my.cnf file (/etc/mysql/my.cnf) and comment the bind-address field, and if you found any skip-network field comment it.