Hi
I just posted, and resolved my issue.
However, I have a new one right away:).
I discovered that I had a Mysql process running (despite removing mysql, or so I thought). So I followed these instructions (I have a note of the issue I think is
http://askubuntu.com/questions/640899/uninstall-mysql-completely
sudo -i
service mysql stop
killall -KILL mysql mysqld_safe mysqld
apt-get --yes purge mysql-server mysql-client
apt-get --yes autoremove --purge
apt-get autoclean
deluser --remove-home mysql ///// I think this is what has caused me the problem
delgroup mysql
rm -rf /etc/apparmor.d/abstractions/mysql /etc/apparmor.d/cache/usr.sbin.mysqld /etc/mysql /var/lib/mysql /var/log/mysql* /var/log/upstart/mysql.log* /var/run/mysqld
updatedb
exit
Xammps GUI error log
2016-09-01 22:42:08 4455 mysqld_safe mysqld from pid file /opt/lampp/var/mysql/thomas.pid ended
2016-09-01 22:42:26 1419 mysqld_safe Starting mysqld daemon with databases from /opt/lampp/var/mysql
2016-09-01 22:42:26 140344654886784 [Note] Using unique option prefix 'key_buffer' is error-prone and can break in the future. Please use the full name 'key_buffer_size' instead.
2016-09-01 22:42:26 140344654886784 [Note] /opt/lampp/sbin/mysqld (mysqld 10.1.13-MariaDB) starting as process 1629 ...
2016-09-01 22:42:26 140344654886784 [ERROR] Fatal error: Can't change to run as user 'mysql' ; Please check that the user exists!
2016-09-01 22:42:26 140344654886784 [ERROR] Aborting
2016-09-01 22:42:26 1419 mysqld_safe mysqld from pid file /opt/lampp/var/mysql/thomas.pid ended
Another log -
/opt/lampp/logs$ sudo tail -f error_log
[Thu Sep 01 22:47:03.931530 2016] [:error] [pid 1695] [client 127.0.0.1:57927] PHP Fatal error: Could not create DB link! in /home/thomas/response/pub/lib/smrDB.class.php on line 45