[mythtv-users] MySQL errors, mysqld.sock

[al]

Long time reader, first time poster.

Problem: MySQL no longer connects to the mysqld server.

History: I setup a Knoppmyth frontend/backend system (see specs in
sig, rather vanilla setup) about a year ago. Recently I started over
from scratch on Gentoo to learn more about the system.

After installing everything, I had a working MythTV frontend/backend
system. However, it took me a few weeks to get the IR blaster working.
The first time I tried MythTV after fixing the IR blaster, mythbackend
failed. I traced the problem back to MySQL. I could no longer connect
to the mysqld server or databases.

I've read up on MySQL troubleshooting but have not found success with
the common suggestions. I have verified all permissions on the
applicable directories (/var/lib/mysql, /var/run/mysqld, etc). I have
a "mysql" user and "mysql" group. I do not have a mysqld.sock, which I
understand is created upon running the server. I can't create it. I
have verified that the mysqld.sock is not in /tmp. I've tried
unmerging/ re-emerging MySQL several times, even upgrading to MySQL
4.1.12.

here is some applicable info about my problem:

# mysqladmin -u root password new-password
mysqladmin: connect to server at 'localhost' failed
error: 'Can't connect to local MySQL server through socket
'/var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock' (2)'
Check that mysqld is running and that the socket:
'/var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock' exists!

# ps aux | grep mysqld
root     28316  0.0  0.1   1484   436 pts/0    R+   19:03   0:00 grep mysqld

# mysqld_safe
Starting mysqld daemon with databases from /var/lib/mysql
STOPPING server from pid file /var/run/mysqld/mysqld.pid
050707 18:57:12  mysqld ended

Can anyone help me? Since this is a new installation, I have no
database to save. I can destroy/create new databases as needed.

TIA,
-Al