ERROR 2002 (HY000): Can't connect to local MySQL server through socket '/var/lib /mysql/mysql.sock' (2), mysql won't start, start up script missing

I ran into this earlier where the mysql package was installed on a CentOS 5.2 server, but mysql was not starting.

This was due to the mysql-server package not being installed.

If you are having issues starting mysql and get the following error.

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ERROR 2002 (HY000): Can't connect to local MySQL server through socket '/var/lib /mysql/mysql.sock' (2)
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Verify that you have the mysql-server package installed.

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[root@dharma02 init.d]# rpm -qa mysql-server
mysql-server-5.0.45-7.el5
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If not, then install it.

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yum install mysql-server
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Then start mysql and you should be good to go.

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service mysqld start
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Have fun!