Hi, I got a similar problem, but first I try to suggest some help:
Have you got any other webserver/mysql-server installed? If you don't know, try finding out with
dpkg -l *mysql*
dpkg -l *apache*
If you see them, try either stopping them with eg /etc/init.d/apache stop and /etc/init.d/mysqld stop.
If not, try finding out which programs eventually might block your ports with netstat -tulpen and look for the applications.
It might be helpful to know where the programs are located, so try finding out with locate $name (apt-get install dlocate) or use find. But for easy applications, I prefer locate.
To my problem:
XAMPP: Couldn't start MySQL!
The other daemons start w/o any errors.
When I try it with /opt/lampp/sbin/mysqld start, it tells my I shouldn't run it as root. But that's what I have to do to run xampp, don't I?
Thanks for your help and I helped I could help the person above me a little