ERROR 2002 (HY000): Can’t connect to local MySQL server

Issue :

After upgrading from MySQL4.1 to MySQL5 on a cPanel server, MySQL is failing to start with the error:

ERROR 2002 (HY000): Can’t connect to local MyS QL server through socket ‘/var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock’ (2)

Fix :

To fix this, run the following command:

mv /etc/my.cnf /etc/my.cnf.OLD

Then force update MySQL :

/scripts/mysqlup –force