If you have lost your root user password for MySQL, you can reset it with the following procedure:
- Take down the mysqld server by sending a kill (not kill -9) to the mysqld server. The pid is stored in a .pid file, which is normally in the MySQL database directory:
Example: shell> kill `cat /your-mysql-data-directory/hostname.pid`
In Red Hat you can also stop the databse with:
Example: shell> service mysqld stop
You must be either the Unix root user or the same user the server runs as to do this. - Restart mysqld with the --skip-grant-tables option.
- Connect to the mysqld server with
Option 1:mysql -h hostname mysql and change the password with a GRANT command.
See MySQL website: MySQL: 7.35 GRANT and REVOKE Syntax
Option 2: shell> mysqladmin -h hostname -u user password 'new password' - Load the privilege tables with: "shell> mysqladmin -h hostname flush-privileges” or with the SQL command "mysql> FLUSH PRIVILEGES;".
Note: Note that after you started mysqld with --skip-grant-tables, any usage of GRANT commands will give you an Unknown command error until you have executed FLUSH PRIVILEGES.
