[SOLVED] MySQL claims there is not root password. MySQL refuses to let me set one.

[ubersoft]

... I'm starting to lose faith in my ability to understand things.

So as I've mentioned in the past, I'm coming here from Kubuntu, and the differences in installation may be making it more difficult for me to unravel this, but...

Kubuntu doesn't come with mysql installed, and when you install it, it asks you to provide a password for the root mysql account.

In Fedora it appears to be pre-installed? I say this because when I try to uninstall it, it wants to uninstall php and many parts of kde as well.

At any rate, I'm having trouble using it. "Trouble" meaning "I can't use it for anything."

So I tried to access it by command line from root, i.e.

su -
[enter password]
mysql

and I get this message:
error: 'Access denied for user 'root'@'localhost' (using password: NO)

Using password NO? OK, so I need to set a password...

mysqladmin -u root password 'PASSWORD HERE'

and I get:
error: 'Access denied for user 'root'@'localhost' (using password: NO)

... ok, maybe I can't do it as root?

so I exit root

exit

and try again from my account

mysqladmin -u root password 'PASSWORD HERE'

and I get:
error: 'Access denied for user 'root'@'localhost' (using password: NO)

So... what idiocy have I committed to put me in this situation? Anyone?

[smr54]

Not sure how you got in the situation. At any rate

http://www.wikisecurityinfo.com/how-...indows-server/

may be useful.

It's possible that at present no password is set

what if you try something like

mysql -u root (and hit enter). I haven't experienced this for awhile, but it's possible that it will then ask for a password and if you just hit enter, put you into mysql where you can then set a password.

[ubersoft]

Typing mysql -u root gives me the same error ("Access denied for user 'root'@'localhost' (using password: NO)

I have no idea how I did this to myself, but I'm pretty sure I should get some kind of award for it.

---------- Post added at 11:13 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:07 PM ----------

The first step on the wiki page you linked to has me shut down mysql. I can't even do that any more!

I'm... confused.

[smr54]

You could try service mysqld stop. It's probably in systemd somewhere, so might be something like

systemctl stop mysqld.service

Or just, as root

pkill mysql


I'm leery of giving advice because I'm not running it anywhere. Hopefully, someone with more mysql knowledge will chime in here.

[SteveGYBE]

The command is

mysql -u <username> -p <password>

Or type the following to be prompted to enter the password without it appearing on the screen

mysql -u <username> -p

---------- Post added at 08:28 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:16 PM ----------

Let's see what you have installed - post the output from the following

rpm -qa mysql*

[ubersoft]

OK, this is strange. When I type rpm -qa mysql* I get no output at all. Either from my local account, or as root. Does it write to a file somewhere?

[marko]

try

rpm -qa mysql

or specifically to query 'mysql'

rpm -q mysql

if you really want to wildcard to rpm via -qa do it this way:

rpm -qa 'mysql*'

(wrap in single quotes so the shell doesn't try to expand it)

When I do that I get:

rpm -qa 'mysql*'

mysql-embedded-5.5.20-1.fc16.x86_64
mysql-server-5.5.20-1.fc16.x86_64
mysql-5.5.20-1.fc16.x86_64
mysql-connector-java-5.1.17-1.fc16.1.x86_64
mysql-libs-5.5.20-1.fc16.x86_64

[Doug G]

From a command line run mysql_secure_installation which will let you set/reset the root password. Also you can use mysqladmin to change the root password.

[ubersoft]

OK, progress!

rpm -qa 'mysql*'

gives

mysql-embedded-5.5.21-1.fc16.x86_64
mysql-utilities-1.0.3-0.5.2.38.fc16.1.noarch
mysql-server-5.5.21-1.fc16.x86_64
mysql-workbench-5.2.38-1.fc16.x86_64
mysql-libs-5.5.21-1.fc16.x86_64
mysql-connector-python-0.3.2-2.fc16.noarch
mysql-5.5.21-1.fc16.x86_64

OK, so I then ran sudo mysql_secure_installation and it gives me this:

NOTE: RUNNING ALL PARTS OF THIS SCRIPT IS RECOMMENDED FOR ALL MySQL
      SERVERS IN PRODUCTION USE!  PLEASE READ EACH STEP CAREFULLY!


In order to log into MySQL to secure it, we'll need the current
password for the root user.  If you've just installed MySQL, and
you haven't set the root password yet, the password will be blank,
so you should just press enter here.

Enter current password for root (enter for none):

So my problem has been it keeps giving me a "using password:NO" response, so I just hit enter, and get:

ERROR 1045 (28000): Access denied for user 'root'@'localhost' (using password: NO)
Enter current password for root (enter for none):

... fine, be that way. I type in my root password, and get:

ERROR 1045 (28000): Access denied for user 'root'@'localhost' (using password: YES)
Enter current password for root (enter for none):

YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME.

OK, how do I completely reinstall mysql from scratch without removing most of my desktop?

[marko]

this isn't a Fedora problem I think it's a Mysql quirk with how it
accepts the password, take a look here at the "password: YES" and "password: NO" cases

http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.1/...ss-denied.html

[ubersoft]

Thank you all!

Based on the mysql site links and your suggestions on how to kill mysqld I was, with much pain and anguish, actually able to fix this problem. I hope I never, ever, ever have to do this again.