Ubuntu 19.10 Can't connect to local MySQL server through socket '/var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock'

First I did

debian@osboxes:~/Desktop$ mysql -u root -p
Command 'mysql' not found, but can be installed with:
sudo apt install mysql-client-core-8.0 # version 8.0.18-0ubuntu0.19.10.1, or
sudo apt install mariadb-client-core-10.3 # version 1:10.3.20-0ubuntu0.19.10.1

then I installed

debian@osboxes:~/Desktop$ sudo apt install mysql-client-core-8.0 

Now I do

debian@osboxes:~/Desktop$ mysql -u root -p
Enter password:
ERROR 2002 (HY000): Can't connect to local MySQL server through socket '/var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock' (2)

So now I check

debian@osboxes:~/Desktop$ sudo service mysql status
Unit mysql.service could not be found.

then I do

debian@osboxes:~/Desktop$ ps aux | grep mysql
debian 4379 0.0 0.0 8896 916 pts/0 S+ 14:38 0:00 grep --color=auto mysql

so it seems mysql service is running. but when I Try to login now

debian@osboxes:~/Desktop$ mysql -u root -p
Enter password:
ERROR 2002 (HY000): Can't connect to local MySQL server through socket '/var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock' (2)
debian@osboxes:~/Desktop$ 

I also tried.

debian@osboxes:~/Desktop$ systemctl restart mysql
Failed to restart mysql.service: Unit mysql.service not found.
debian@osboxes:~/Desktop$ sudo dpkg -l | grep -E 'mysql'
ii libmysqlclient21:amd64 8.0.18-0ubuntu0.19.10.1 amd64 MySQL database client library
ii mysql-client-core-8.0 8.0.18-0ubuntu0.19.10.1 amd64 MySQL database core client binaries
ii mysql-common 5.8+1.0.5ubuntu2 all MySQL database common files, e.g. /etc/mysql/my.cnf
debian@osboxes:~/Desktop$ 

Last week I had asked question mysql does not start after a reboot so I know I had installed mysql on this machine in problem. But still I face the problem so tried

debian@osboxes:~/Desktop$ sudo apt-get install mysql-server
E: Could not get lock /var/lib/dpkg/lock-frontend. It is held by process 4531 (unattended-upgr) - open (11: Resource temporarily unavailable)
N: Be aware that removing the lock file is not a solution and may break your system.
E: Unable to acquire the dpkg frontend lock (/var/lib/dpkg/lock-frontend), is another process using it?

I also checked

debian@osboxes:~/Desktop$ systemctl -a | grep -iE 'mysql'

there was no output. Also I do

debian@osboxes:~/Desktop$ sudo netstat -tap | grep mysql
sudo: netstat: command not found

then I do

debian@osboxes:~/Desktop$ sudo apt-get install net-tools
debian@osboxes:~/Desktop$ sudo netstat -tap | grep mysql

No output.

Now based on comments below I did

debian@osboxes:~/Desktop$ sudo rm /var/lib/dpkg/lock
debian@osboxes:~/Desktop$ sudo dpkg --configure -a
debian@osboxes:~/Desktop$ sudo systemctl restart mysql.service
Failed to restart mysql.service: Unit mysql.service not found.

Now try

debian@osboxes:~/Desktop$ sudo rm /var/cache/apt/archives/lock 

Now I reboot and then

debian@osboxes:~/Desktop$ ps aux | grep mysql
debian 2403 0.0 0.0 8896 844 pts/0 S+ 15:10 0:00 grep --color=auto mysql
debian@osboxes:~/Desktop$ mysql -u root -p
Enter password:
ERROR 2002 (HY000): Can't connect to local MySQL server through socket '/var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock' (2)

It is taking root password which I tried last week. I am not able to understand what should I check. I can't login. What should I check now? I am on Ubuntu 19.10

1 Answer

In addition to mysql client you need to install also mysql server.

I've added info from Ubuntu mysql

Installation

To install MySQL, run the following command from a terminal prompt:

sudo apt install mysql-server

Once the installation is complete, the MySQL server should be started automatically. You can run the following command from a terminal prompt to check whether the MySQL server is running:

sudo netstat -tap | grep mysql

When you run this command, you should see the following line or something similar:

tcp 0 0 localhost:mysql *:* LISTEN 2556/mysqld

If the server is not running correctly, you can type the following command to start it:

sudo systemctl restart mysql.service

Configuration

You can edit the /etc/mysql/my.cnf file to configure the basic settings -- log file, port number, etc. For example, to configure MySQL to listen for connections from network hosts, change the bind-address directive to the server's IP address:

bind-address = 192.168.0.5

Replace 192.168.0.5 with the appropriate address.

After making a change to /etc/mysql/my.cnf the MySQL daemon will need to be restarted:

sudo systemctl restart mysql.service