Not able to connect to server

[Nikos Skatz]

Hi,

I'm new in mysql and after a xampp installation, I installed MySql Workbench as well.
I can say that everything works fine when I use PhpAdmin.
But I can't connect to the server from MySql WorkBench.
The message is "Failed to Connect to MySQL at 127.0.0.1:3306 with user root"
"Lost connection to MySQL server at 'reading initial communication packet', system error: 111".
I tried as root user giving the correct password.
In hostname I tried using localhost and 127.0.0.1 as well.
In port, I left 3306.
I also changed from System Profile tab the Configuration File to /opt/lampp/etc/my.cnf (instead of /etc/my.cnf as it was by default).

And one more thing:
When I iseue the command "mysql -uroot -p'password' -h localhost -P 3306" from command line, the command is succesful (I get mysql>).
But when I change "localhost" to "127.0.0.1" (or "192.168.2.4") I get the errmsg
ERROR 2003 (HY000): Can't connect to MySQL server on '127.0.0.1' (111).

The OS is Linux (CentOS).

Any help would be more than welcome.