need to login to mysql in unbuntu

[attaboy]

I installed Xampp on unbuntu I can start lampp and it starts up apache, mysql and some ftp application. I can run some mysql commands from terminal by typing mysql --command I would if possible like to be able to be able to log into mysql. I tried like this
mysqladmin -u root password myPassword that didn't work. I've only been working with unbuntu a few days.

[attaboy]

I managed to get a wizard called citidel to run, it walked me through creating a mysql account with admin rights named admin and a password but when I try to login:
mysql -u admin -p

I get this message:
root@dad-OEM:~/Desktop# mysql -u admin -p
Enter password:
ERROR 2002 (HY000): Can't connect to local MySQL server through socket '/var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock' (2)
root@dad-OEM:~/Desktop#

update:
I just found out I can access phpmyadmin from localhost (shoulda thought of that earlier) still I would like to be able to use terminal like I can use the command window in Windows.

[JonB]

ERROR 2002 (HY000): Can't connect to local MySQL server through socket '/var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock' (2)

well that would be because this is LAMPP, not a 'LAMP' stack. Citadel (or whatever) doesn't know where mysql.sock is located.

Use phpMyAdmin for now, and familiarize yourself with where things are located in LAMPP - everything is under /opt/lampp.

Good Luck