[Techtalk] Cannot get LAMP mysql or php to start

[Leslie MacDougall]

I have LAMP installed, but cannot get either mysql or php to start.
I also installed TweetDeck and could not get it to run either. Apache
is running just fine.
I installed using command line, not gui, but a check on Synaptic
Package Manager says that these programs are definitely installed.

I got this:
An error seems to have occurred while installing the database. If it's
of any help,
this was the error encountered:
ERROR 2002 (HY000): Can't connect to local MySQL server through socket
 '/var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock' (2)

Has anyone come across this problem? I have asked a couple of
experienced Linux users and they say it is "odd"

I'm running Ubuntu 9.04, and Gnome. Please advise if you need more
info than I have supplied.