MySQL server startup error ‘The server quit without updating PID file’

On Mac OS X v10.6 (Snow Leopard), starting MySQL gives the following error:

The server quit without updating PID file

File my.cnf

[mysqld]
port            = 3306

socket          = /tmp/mysql.sock

skip-external-locking

key_buffer_size = 16K

pid-file=/var/run/mysqld/mysqld.pid

[mysqld_safe]

log-error=/var/log/mysqld.log

pid-file=/var/run/mysqld/mysqld.pid

Try to find your log file with suffix “.err”. There should be more information. It might be in:

/usr/local/var/mysql/your_computer_name.local.err

It’s probably a problem with permissions

1. Check if any MySQL instance is running

   ps -ef | grep mysql
   

   If yes, you should stop it, or kill the process:

   kill -9 PID
   

   where PID is the number displayed next to the username on the output of the previous command

2. Check ownership of /usr/local/var/mysql/

   ls -laF /usr/local/var/mysql/
   

   If it is owner by root, you should change it to mysql or your_user

   sudo chown -R mysql /usr/local/var/mysql/