Thanks for the reply. This is what I did:
opened the my.conf file located in /etc/mysql under sudo and edited the line you stated as written in gedit.
Opened and started Apache then MySQL. Apache still starts but MySQL does not.
When I do start Ampps from Terminal I get this (and I did before as well):
QSslSocket: cannot resolve SSLv2_client_method
QSslSocket: cannot resolve SSLv2_server_method
I did run this:
mysql --help --verbose
to find where the order of conf files was. Thats was how I found the one that had the line to edit.
I reran your command and ended up with the same as before:
/$ /usr/local/ampps/mysql/bin/mysqld
2015-01-21 11:13:35 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.
2015-01-21 11:13:35 9910 [ERROR] Can't find messagefile '/Applications/AMPPS/mysql/share/english/errmsg.sys'
2015-01-21 11:13:35 9910 [Warning] Can't create test file /usr/local/ampps/var/peter-Inspiron-8600.lower-test
2015-01-21 11:13:35 9910 [Warning] Can't create test file /usr/local/ampps/var/peter-Inspiron-8600.lower-test
2015-01-21 11:13:35 9910 [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.
2015-01-21 11:13:35 9910 [Warning] One can only use the --user switch if running as root