what does this error mean
ERROR 2002: Can't connect to local MySQL server through socket '/var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock' (2)

Usually that you haven't started mysql server before trying to connect to it.

Cool

Thanks

You're welcome, so did you get it working?

Cool

I tried to start it...mysql start, however its giving me the same error with cannot connect to localhost

I'm getting the same error you had at the begging of your post. did you ever get rid of it?
i looked around for an answer and the closest i found was instructions on how to start myslq- so i followed these by going to ...
init.d/mysql start
but that still just gave me this same error...what am i missing?

yes, i started the daemon the mysql daemon

@MOMO Angel77
there are more possibilities why you cannot connect to mysql with the client
a) mysql is not running - check the logs for more info
b) wrong permissions for the mysql.sock - well now you know what to do ;-)
c) server is running, your client is just awaiting the socket in the location specified in the error message, but the server daemon creates it in some other location - this is very easy to solve using the /etc/my.cnf config file, you add "socket = /path/to/mysql/socket" either in the [client] section or in the [mysqld] section of /etc/my.cnf, where "/path/to/mysql/socket" must be set according in which section you put it, when in the [client] section - set it to the path mysql.sock reside, when in the [mysqld] to path clients look for the socket file, in your case "/var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock"