MySQL Error: : ‘Access denied for user ‘root’@’localhost’

$ ./mysqladmin -u root -p ‘redacted‘
Enter password:

mysqladmin: connect to server at ‘localhost’ failed error:
‘Access denied for user ‘root’@’localhost’ (using password: YES)’

How can I fix this?

Answer

1. Open & Edit /etc/my.cnf or /etc/mysql/my.cnf, depending on your distro.
2. Add skip-grant-tables under [mysqld]
3. Restart Mysql
4. You should be able to login to mysql now using the below command mysql -u root -p
5. Run mysql> flush privileges;
6. Set new password by ALTER USER 'root'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'NewPassword';
7. Go back to /etc/my.cnf and remove/comment skip-grant-tables
8. Restart Mysql
9. Now you will be able to login with the new password mysql -u root -p