Mysql start up issues | ERROR! The server quit without updating PID file

Question

Any Ideas?

Joshs-MacBook-Pro:cdwhp joshc$ mysql.server start
Starting MySQL
.. ERROR! The server quit without updating PID file (/usr/local/var/mysql/Joshs-MacBook-Pro.local.pid).

Error Logs

120927 13:08:35 mysqld_safe Starting mysqld daemon with databases from /usr/local/var/mysql
120927 13:08:36 [Warning] Setting lower_case_table_names=2 because file system for /usr/local/var/mysql/ is case insensitive
120927 13:08:36 InnoDB: The InnoDB memory heap is disabled
120927 13:08:36 InnoDB: Mutexes and rw_locks use GCC atomic builtins
120927 13:08:36 InnoDB: Compressed tables use zlib 1.2.5
120927 13:08:36 InnoDB: Initializing buffer pool, size = 128.0M
120927 13:08:36 InnoDB: Completed initialization of buffer pool
120927 13:08:36 InnoDB: highest supported file format is Barracuda.
120927 13:08:36  InnoDB: Waiting for the background threads to start
120927 13:08:37 InnoDB: 1.1.8 started; log sequence number 9531786
120927 13:08:37 [ERROR] /usr/local/Cellar/mysql/5.5.27/bin/mysqld: unknown variable 'default-character-set=utf8'
120927 13:08:37 [ERROR] Aborting

120927 13:08:37  InnoDB: Starting shutdown...
120927 13:08:37  InnoDB: Shutdown completed; log sequence number 9531786
120927 13:08:37 [Note] /usr/local/Cellar/mysql/5.5.27/bin/mysqld: Shutdown complete

120927 13:08:37 mysqld_safe mysqld from pid file /usr/local/var/mysql/Joshs-MacBook-Pro.local.pid ended

Answer 1

Complete reinstall of mysql solved this problem in my case:

brew uninstall mysql
rm -Rf /usr/local/var/mysql
brew install mysql
mysql.server start

Note: use this as last resort, all data will be deleted