Bug #15548 unable to connect the server at localhost
Submitted: 7 Dec 2005 10:19 Modified: 7 Dec 2005 10:32
Reporter: Salman Habib Email Updates:
Status: Not a Bug Impact on me:
None 
Category:MySQL Server Severity:S2 (Serious)
Version: OS:Linux (linux enterprise 3)
Assigned to: Aleksey Kishkin CPU Architecture:Any

[7 Dec 2005 10:19] Salman Habib 
Description:
/usr/bin/mysqladmin: connect to server at 'localhost' failed error: 'Can't connect to local MySQL server through socket '/var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock' (2)' Check that mysqld is running and that the socket: '/var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock' exists! mysql has failed, please contact the sysadmin (result was "Warning, no valid mysql.sock file found.mysql has failed"). 

How to repeat:
don't know, it just came to server i am hosting sites on.
[7 Dec 2005 10:32] Aleksey Kishkin 
We're sorry, but the bug system is not the appropriate forum for 
asking help on using MySQL products. Your problem is not the result 
of a bug.

Support on using our products is available both free in our forums
at http://forums.mysql.com and for a reasonable fee direct from our
skilled support engineers at http://www.mysql.com/support/

Thank you for your interest in MySQL.

Additional info:

It usualy means either if server doesn't run, or you use server that creates mysql.sock in the another place (for instance /tmp/mysql.sock)

could you check if
- mysql is running (say,  look at 
ps ax |grep mysql
)
- if you have /tmp/mysql.conf
- if you have another socket place in the /etc/my.cnf