Hi

I'm very much a beginner but very keen to learn as much as I can about running a Linux based web server....so much so I'm renting out my own vps and trying to teach myself.

I know that php is already installed but I've come up against my first obstacle with accessing mySQL. At the command line I type in mysql -u etc etc. and I get the following error message.

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

Can someone please tell me what this means and what the cause and remedy is. (could it be that mySQL is not installed..here is the help page for setting up php and mySQL provided by the company I rent the vps from http://www.memset.com/support/index.php?page=PHP, I mention it on the off chance it may provide info that's specific to this server.

Please bear in mind I'm a beginner so if any answers are in simple terms.....ie. please be gentle with me ;-)

I ran into something similar when I first installed mysql. It turns out you really need TWO packages to make mysql run, mysql-client and mysql-server. I suspect you only have mysql-client.

Logged in as root, try "yum install mysql-server" and see if that doesn't improve things.

You may also get that message if the mysql server is installed but not running.