Mysql – Starting MySQL Error on Snow Leopard

ORIGINAL POST

I just erased and re-installed Snow Leopard. I installed MySQL 5.1.48 64-bit clean. I'm having issues with the MySQL server… when I boot the computer and log in, the server is not running. I tried to start it using the preference pane by clicking "Start MySQL Server", but all it did was highlight the button blue and think for like a minute, and then the button went back to normal and nothing happened.

I then tried starting it from the terminal:

Hristo$ sudo /usr/local/mysql/support-files/mysql.server start
Starting MySQL
.....................................................................
ERROR! Manager of pid-file quit without updating file.

so I checked the status:

Hristo$ sudo /usr/local/mysql/support-files/mysql.server status
Password:
/usr/local/mysql/support-files/mysql.server: line 418: pidof: command not found
 ERROR! MySQL is not running

I tried this:

Hristo$ /usr/local/mysql/bin/mysql -u root -p
Enter password: 
ERROR 2002 (HY000): Can't connect to local MySQL server through socket '/tmp/mysql.sock' (2)

So I'm not sure what to do. When I first installed, the server was working but I went to the preference pane to try and stop it… and the same thing happened… I clicked the "Stop MysQL Server" button, it did some thinking, then nothing. So I restarted the computer and now I'm having the above problems and apparently, the mysql.sock file is not in /tmp/ anymore. It was there when I installed, and it is not there after I restarted the computer.

Any ideas?

UPDATE

This is my /etc/my.cnf file.

[client]
socket = /var/mysql/mysql.sock

[mysqld]
socket = /var/mysql/mysql.sock

UPDATE 2

When setting up Apache, PHP, and MySQL, I followed these instructions: http://superfancy.net/coding/php-mysql-apache-in-mac-osx-leopard/ Right now, if I remove the MySQL configuration file, things seem to work fine. But when my.cnf exists in /etc/, things don't work. The MySQL verion is:

Hristo$ mysql --version
/usr/local/mysql/bin/mysql  Ver 14.14 Distrib 5.1.46, for apple-darwin9.8.0 (i386) using readline 5.1

UPDATE 3

mysql.err:

100706 11:38:36 mysqld_safe Starting mysqld daemon with databases from /usr/local/mysql/data
100706 11:38:36 [Warning] '--log' is deprecated and will be removed in a future release. Please use ''--general_log'/'--general_log_file'' instead.
100706 11:38:36 [Warning] '--log_slow_queries' is deprecated and will be removed in a future release. Please use ''--slow_query_log'/'--slow_query_log_file'' instead.
100706 11:38:36 [Warning] Setting lower_case_table_names=2 because file system for /usr/local/mysql/data/ is case insensitive
100706 11:38:36 [Note] Plugin 'FEDERATED' is disabled.
100706 11:38:36  InnoDB: Started; log sequence number 0 69987
100706 11:38:36 [ERROR] Can't start server : Bind on unix socket: Permission denied
100706 11:38:36 [ERROR] Do you already have another mysqld server running on socket: /var/mysql/mysql.sock ?
100706 11:38:36 [ERROR] Aborting

100706 11:38:36  InnoDB: Starting shutdown...
100706 11:38:41  InnoDB: Shutdown completed; log sequence number 0 69987
100706 11:38:41 [Note] /usr/local/mysql/bin/mysqld: Shutdown complete

mysql.log:

/usr/local/mysql/bin/mysqld, Version: 5.1.46-log (MySQL Community Server (GPL)). started with:
Tcp port: 0  Unix socket: /var/mysql/mysql.sock
Time                 Id Command    Argument