Can't connect to local MySQL server through socket '/var/mysql/mysql.sock' (38)

I am having a big problem trying to connect to mysql. When I run: /usr/local/mysql/bin/mysql start I have the following error : Can't connect to local MySQL server through socket '/var/mysql/mysql.sock' (38) I do have mysql.sock under the /var/mysql directory. In /etc/my.cnf I have: [client] port=3306 socket=/var/mysql/mysql.sock [mysqld] port=3306 socket=/var/mysql/mysql.sock key_buffer_size=16M