mysqld_safe does not allow MySQL connection

Question

I cannot start mysqld without getting the following error:

[root@alarm ~]# mysqld
140414 16:01:04 [ERROR] Fatal error: Please read "Security" section of the manua l to find out how to run mysqld as root!

140414 16:01:04 [ERROR] Aborting

140414 16:01:04 [Note] mysqld: Shutdown complete

If I try to start mysql, it tell me it cannot connect to the local mysql server through the socket '/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock'. I fixed this by running mysqld_safe instead of mysqld. This has stopped working and I now get the following error:

ERROR 2002 (HY000): Can't connect to local MySQL server through socket '/run/mys qld/mysqld.sock' (2)

I use mariadb on the Archlinux distribution. Anyone know how to fix this?

EDIT 1:

Steve, I managed to start the mysqld service by using systemctl as can be seen here:

[root@alarm ~]# ps aux | grep mysql
mysql      880  1.0 10.3 514276 52776 ?        Ssl  09:30   0:01 /usr/bin/mysqld --pid-file=/run/mysqld/mysqld.pid
root      1618  0.0  0.1   4032   936 pts/0    S+   09:31   0:00 grep mysql

When I try to run mysql, I still get the error:

ERROR 2002 (HY000): Can't connect to local MySQL server through socket '/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock' (2)

Answer 1

----- ORIGINAL SUGGESTION -----

Try running (as root):

systemctl start mysqld

If this doesn't work please post back to say if the same error returned.

----- FURTHER ADVICE -----

Great that MySQL is now starting at least. Few things to check:

1) Does the socket file actually exist? If not run touch /run/mysqld/mysqld.sock to create it and see if that helps, you might need to change the file to be owned/writeable by the mysql user;

2) Have you checked your my.cnf file to check the mysql configuration is all correct?

3) If the above don't help I'd suggest trying to start mysql again using the --verbose flag so you get a more detailed error output