MySQL won't start on Snow Leopard I'm getting this error while trying to start the mysql server

$ sudo mysqld_safe --user=mysql
110425 23:11:33 mysqld_safe Logging to '/usr/local/mysql/data/unknown-e0-f8-47-0c-04-a0.lan.err'.
110425 23:11:33 mysqld_safe Starting mysqld daemon with databases from /usr/local/mysql/data
110425 23:11:35 mysqld_safe mysqld from pid file /usr/local/mysql/data/unknown-e0-f8-47-0c-04-a0.lan.pid ended


any suggestions?
Change skip-locking to skip-external-locking in /etc/my.cnf.  This problem can happen if you had a different MySQL installed previously.  I experienced this problem when I moved to MAMP.