mysql fails to start and i can't see why - mysql

Question

After a reboot, mysql is failing to start. Before i rebooted i was fooling around with the /etc/mysql/my.cnf file, trying to change my default character encoding from utf-8 to latin1. As far as i can tell, i've undone my changes (thinking they were probably the result of it failing to start) but i'm not sure as i didn't make a backup (stupidly).
How can i see why mysql is failing to start? I thought it would output something to /var/log/mysql.err or /var/log/mysql.log but there's nothing at all in either of those files. Is there some other file that might be logging the problem, or can i perhaps start it in a verbose/trace mode that would output the problem? I'm looking at the man file now but can't see anything helpful (though i may be looking at the wrong man file).
thanks - max
Here's the contents of my /etc/mysql/my.cnf file as it stands now, hopefully someone can spot something obviously wrong:
#
# The MySQL database server configuration file.
#
# You can copy this to one of:
# - "/etc/mysql/my.cnf" to set global options,
# - "~/.my.cnf" to set user-specific options.
#
# One can use all long options that the program supports.
# Run program with --help to get a list of available options and with
# --print-defaults to see which it would actually understand and use.
#
# For explanations see
# http://dev.mysql.com/doc/mysql/en/server-system-variables.html
# This will be passed to all mysql clients
# It has been reported that passwords should be enclosed with ticks/quotes
# escpecially if they contain "#" chars...
# Remember to edit /etc/mysql/debian.cnf when changing the socket location.
[client]
port = 3306
socket = /var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock
# Here is entries for some specific programs
# The following values assume you have at least 32M ram
# This was formally known as [safe_mysqld]. Both versions are currently parsed.
[mysqld_safe]
socket = /var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock
nice = 0
[mysqld]
#
# * Basic Settings
#
#
# * IMPORTANT
# If you make changes to these settings and your system uses apparmor, you may
# also need to also adjust /etc/apparmor.d/usr.sbin.mysqld.
#
user = mysql
pid-file = /var/run/mysqld/mysqld.pid
socket = /var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock
port = 3306
basedir = /usr
datadir = /var/lib/mysql
tmpdir = /tmp
skip-external-locking
#
# Instead of skip-networking the default is now to listen only on
# localhost which is more compatible and is not less secure.
bind-address = 127.0.0.1
#
# * Fine Tuning
#
key_buffer = 16M
max_allowed_packet = 16M
thread_stack = 192K
thread_cache_size = 8
# This replaces the startup script and checks MyISAM tables if needed
# the first time they are touched
myisam-recover = BACKUP
#max_connections = 100
#table_cache = 64
#thread_concurrency = 10
#
# * Query Cache Configuration
#
query_cache_limit = 1M
query_cache_size = 16M
#
# * Logging and Replication
#
# Both location gets rotated by the cronjob.
# Be aware that this log type is a performance killer.
# As of 5.1 you can enable the log at runtime!
#general_log_file = /var/log/mysql/mysql.log
#general_log = 1
#
# Error logging goes to syslog due to /etc/mysql/conf.d/mysqld_safe_syslog.cnf.
#
# Here you can see queries with especially long duration
#log_slow_queries = /var/log/mysql/mysql-slow.log
#long_query_time = 2
#log-queries-not-using-indexes
#
# The following can be used as easy to replay backup logs or for replication.
# note: if you are setting up a replication slave, see README.Debian about
# other settings you may need to change.
#server-id = 1
#log_bin = /var/log/mysql/mysql-bin.log
expire_logs_days = 10
max_binlog_size = 100M
#binlog_do_db = include_database_name
#binlog_ignore_db = include_database_name
#
# * InnoDB
#
# InnoDB is enabled by default with a 10MB datafile in /var/lib/mysql/.
# Read the manual for more InnoDB related options. There are many!
#
# * Security Features
#
# Read the manual, too, if you want chroot!
# chroot = /var/lib/mysql/
#
# For generating SSL certificates I recommend the OpenSSL GUI "tinyca".
#
# ssl-ca=/etc/mysql/cacert.pem
# ssl-cert=/etc/mysql/server-cert.pem
# ssl-key=/etc/mysql/server-key.pem
#CHANGES
[client]
#default-character-set=latin1
[mysql]
#default-character-set=latin1
[mysqld]
#default-character-set = latin1
#skip-character-set-client-handshake
#collation-server = utf8_unicode_ci
#init-connect='SET NAMES latin1'
#character-set-server = latin1
#/CHANGES
[mysqldump]
quick
quote-names
max_allowed_packet = 16M
[mysql]
#no-auto-rehash # faster start of mysql but no tab completition
[isamchk]
key_buffer = 16M
#
# * IMPORTANT: Additional settings that can override those from this file!
# The files must end with '.cnf', otherwise they'll be ignored.
#
!includedir /etc/mysql/conf.d/

Answer 1

I tried various my.cnf files and nothing worked, so i ended up reinstalling it from scratch, which seems to have solved my latin1/utf8 issues as well. So not a problem any more, thanks for reading though.