Moving datadir OK start, but socket error for mysql client

I'm trying to move my MySQL datadir from /var/lib/mysql over to /home/mysql (an ssd drive as I'm having iowait issues on /var/lib/mysql when MySQL is running on that drive). The OS is CentOS 5.6 (final), MySQL version is 5.5.17-log and Selinux is disabled. ---- I've read many how-tos on the web and here is the procedure I'm using: 1. mkdir /home/mysql and then chown mysql:mysql /home/mysql

2. flush tables;

3. service mysqld stop

4. cp -R -p /var/lib/mysql/* /home/mysql/

5. mv /var/lib/mysql /var/lib/mysql_off

6. in my.cnf change datadir=/home/mysql and change socket=/home/mysql/mysql.sock

7. service mysqld start (it starts fine,OK)

---- When I go to load my website (or any other sites on this same server) I get this error: error sql: Can't connect to local MySQL server through socket '/var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock' So it's clearly trying to access the old socket location which is invalid since I'm changing the MySQL directory to mysql_old. The mysql error log does not show any issues when i start up and does show the new socket location, with no errors (see bottom for the mysql error log) Solutions I've tried: adding to my.cnf: [client] socket=/home/mysql/mysql.sock and then starting mysqld -> same error. --- I know I can just make a sym link of /var/lib/mysql -> /home/mysql and that will solve this but I want to know why I'm getting that error even with the [client] socket=/home/mysql/mysql.sock and how to fix this so that I don't have to make a symlink. --- Other info: ls -la of actual /home/mysql: drwxr-xr-x 26 mysql mysql 4096 Aug 16 21:40 mysql ls -la of actual /var/lib/mysql: drwxr-xr-x 26 mysql mysql 4096 Aug 16 21:41 mysql [root@x home]# sestatus -v

SELinux status: disabled mysqld error log with socket and data dir set to my new locations: /home/mysql/: 140816 21:39:36 mysqld_safe mysqld from pid file /var/run/mysqld/mysqld.pid ended 140816 21:39:55 mysqld_safe Starting mysqld daemon with databases from /home/mysql 140816 21:39:55 [Note] Plugin 'FEDERATED' is disabled. 140816 21:39:55 InnoDB: The InnoDB memory heap is disabled 140816 21:39:55 InnoDB: Mutexes and rw_locks use GCC atomic builtins 140816 21:39:55 InnoDB: Compressed tables use zlib 1.2.3 140816 21:39:55 InnoDB: Using Linux native AIO 140816 21:39:55 InnoDB: Initializing buffer pool, size = 256.0M 140816 21:39:55 InnoDB: Completed initialization of buffer pool 140816 21:39:55 InnoDB: highest supported file format is Barracuda. 140816 21:39:55 InnoDB: Waiting for the background threads to start 140816 21:39:56 InnoDB: 1.1.8 started; log sequence number 784856558 140816 21:39:56 [Warning] 'user' entry 'root@xxx.xxxx.com' ignored in --skip-name-resolve mode. 140816 21:39:56 [Warning] 'user' entry '@xxxx.xxxx.com' ignored in --skip-name-resolve mode. 140816 21:39:56 [Note] Event Scheduler: Loaded 0 events 140816 21:39:56 [Note] /usr/libexec/mysqld: ready for connections. Version: '5.5.17-log' socket: '/home/mysql/mysql.sock' port: 3306 MySQL Community Server (GPL) by Remi --- mysqld error log prior with socket and data dir set to: /var/lib/mysql: 140816 21:40:09 mysqld_safe mysqld from pid file /var/run/mysqld/mysqld.pid ended 140816 21:40:59 mysqld_safe Starting mysqld daemon with databases from /var/lib/mysql 140816 21:40:59 [Note] Plugin 'FEDERATED' is disabled. 140816 21:40:59 InnoDB: The InnoDB memory heap is disabled 140816 21:40:59 InnoDB: Mutexes and rw_locks use GCC atomic builtins 140816 21:40:59 InnoDB: Compressed tables use zlib 1.2.3 140816 21:40:59 InnoDB: Using Linux native AIO 140816 21:40:59 InnoDB: Initializing buffer pool, size = 256.0M 140816 21:40:59 InnoDB: Completed initialization of buffer pool 140816 21:40:59 InnoDB: highest supported file format is Barracuda. 140816 21:40:59 InnoDB: Waiting for the background threads to start 140816 21:41:00 InnoDB: 1.1.8 started; log sequence number 784856558 140816 21:41:00 [Warning] 'user' entry 'root@xxxx.xxxx.com' ignored in --skip-name-resolve mode. 140816 21:41:00 [Warning] 'user' entry '@xxx.xxxx.com' ignored in --skip-name-resolve mode. 140816 21:41:00 [Note] Event Scheduler: Loaded 0 events 140816 21:41:00 [Note] /usr/libexec/mysqld: ready for connections. Version: '5.5.17-log' socket: '/var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock' port: 3306 MySQL Community Server (GPL) by Remi