Had the same problem. Solved as given below. Use command :
sudo tail -f /var/log/messages|grep -i mysql
to check if SELinux policy is causing the issue. If so, first check if SELinux policy is enabled using command #sestatus
. If it shows enabled, then disable it.
To disable:
# vi /etc/sysconfig/selinux
sestatus
and it should show "disabled"Uninstall and reinstall mysql. It should be working.