Okay, I’ve done some pretty extensive reading in the forums without luck fixing this problem. On install I am getting the following errors:

  1. Unable to connect to your database server.
  2. Unable to select the database

I am installing an instance of EE Core as a test before migrating from Wordpress. I am installing core 1.6.4 onto the localhost on my HD as a testing environment, so I don’t have a hosting provider to call to check my server settings. Here are the basics of my system:

Mac OS 10.5
MySQL 5.0.45
PHP 5.2.5
Apache 2.0
EE Core 1.6.4

Please note I am currently running an instance of Wordpress on my localhost without error.

I filled out the dbtest.php and received the following response:

Warning: mysql_connect() [function.mysql-connect]: Can’t connect to local MySQL server through socket ‘/var/mysql/mysql.sock’ (2) in /Library/WebServer/Documents/ee/admin/utilities/dbtest.php on line 12

Unable to connect to your database server

Warning: mysql_select_db() [function.mysql-select-db]: Can’t connect to local MySQL server through socket ‘/var/mysql/mysql.sock’ (2) in /Library/WebServer/Documents/ee/admin/utilities/dbtest.php on line 28

Warning: mysql_select_db() [function.mysql-select-db]: A link to the server could not be established in /Library/WebServer/Documents/ee/admin/utilities/dbtest.php on line 28
Unable to select your database

I have checked and double checked my usernames and passwords without change.
ensured there were no “$” in my passwords
changed databases just in case there was some kind of corruption

What can I try next to get up and running? Thank you for any help you can provide.

It sounds like an incorrect path to the mysql.sock and PHP isn’t seeing MySQL. A possible fix is to to edit your php.ini file and change the value of

to /tmp/mysql.sock so it looks like

Let me know if you need more details on how to do that.

Thanks for the quick response Ryan. I had a similar problem a while back when setting up my Wordpress testing server, but have corrected it and Wordpress runs fine now. Since Wordpress works on the same server (albeit a different database) wouldn’t that indicate that PHP and MySQL are interacting just fine?

I hesitate to edit my PHP settings because I use Wordpress regularly to maintain and develop client sites and can’t afford to disturb that flow.

Any thoughts? Thanks for your help.

I had the same issue on my MacBook Pro running EE locally. Firstly check the connection with EE wizard at http://expressionengine.com/docs/requirements.html

Then if you had the same issue as me…

Can’t connect to local MySQL server through socket ‘/var/mysql/mysql.sock’ (2)

Read this article on Apple discussion boards.

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=5059320

This fixed my connection problems.  Hope this helps.

Thanks for the link Spindigg. I’ll take a look at it to see if I can get that main server up and running smoothly. I got so frustrated I just installed MAMP and it seems to be doing the job just fine.

Once I get my own EE site up and running I may feature a few how-to’s on running a local test server, because the resources I found seemed to be fairly limited. Hopefully that will help the next person with these same issues.