Thank you.
Here is what I ran:
:~$ /usr/local/ampps/mysql/bin/mysqld
Here is what came up:
2015-01-20 14:29:56 0 [Warning] Using unique option prefix key_buffer instead of key_buffer_size is deprecated and will be removed in a future release. Please use the full name instead.
2015-01-20 14:29:56 2387 [ERROR] Can't find messagefile '/usr/share/mysql/errmsg.sys'
2015-01-20 14:29:56 2387 [Warning] Can't create test file /usr/local/ampps/var/peter-Inspiron-8600.lower-test
2015-01-20 14:29:56 2387 [Warning] Can't create test file /usr/local/ampps/var/peter-Inspiron-8600.lower-test
2015-01-20 14:29:56 2387 [Warning] lower_case_table_names was set to 2, even though your the file system '/usr/local/ampps/var/' is case sensitive. Now setting lower_case_table_names to 0 to avoid future problems.
2015-01-20 14:29:56 2387 [Warning] One can only use the --user switch if running as root