ERROR 2002: Can't connect to local MySQL server through socket '/tmp/mysql.sock' (61) why?? why??

[mysql Danny]

Heya I have this problem with mysql I did the following and some other commands but I
forgot what they are 

gunzip 
tar mysql.tar -C /usr/local/
/configure
make
make install

cp /usr/local/mysq1234/support-files/mysql.server/

/usr/local/etc/rc.d/

cd /usr/local/etc/rc.d

mv mysql.server mysql.server.sh

chmod 755 mysql.server.sh

reboot

(the deamon starts,) but the HD light keeps flashing and flashing and only 46% is idel

So I typed in "mysql start"

Then I get the following error message:

ERROR 2002: Can't connect to local MySQL server through socket '/tmp/mysql.sock' (61) 

IF someone can give me a solution to resolve this problem that will be great :)

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