Cannot reset MySQL default root password after initial installation

Question

I have installed mysql 5.7 on a Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.5 server and when I tried to run following command after installation it is asking for a password for root@localhost.

/usr/bin/mysql_secure_installation

I have never set a root password and I'm logged in to Linux as root user.

Then I have found following documentation for resetting root password and followed that one too.

https://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.5/en/resetting-permissions.html

But even after starting the server with following command it is asking for a password

/etc/init.d/mysqld start --skip-grant-tables &

I have tried starting the server with init-file option, but no success.

Does anyone know how to reset the password correctly or default MySQL password?

• user141074: See the section Recover MySQL root password. I used it yesterday on CentOS 7.

Answer 1

Restart the service without authentication

Ubuntu/Debian

service mysql stop
service mysql start --skip-grant-tables --skip-networking

Other sysv

If you're on a sysv Linux use this

/etc/init.d/mysqld stop
/etc/init.d/mysqld start --skip-grant-tables --skip-networking &

Resetting

Then you need to login as root

mysql -u root -p

Then when logged in run

FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
ALTER USER 'root'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'MyNewPass';

Difference between other guides

There are a lot of "guides" on this, for clarity,

• Some guides use the older SET PASSWORD syntax, that's pre 5-7.6, don't use that anymore.
• Some guides just don't use --skip-networking, that's unsafe.
• Some guides don't connect with the -u root that's more error-prone.

• Anadi Misra: This gives the error: ERROR 1290 (HY000): The MariaDB server is running with the --skip-grant-tables option so it cannot execute this statement

Answer 2

You can do this, if you want a full clean installation. Resets accounts, too.

sudo apt purge mariadb-server && sudo rm -rf /var/lib/mysql/ && sudo apt install mariadb-server && sudo systemctl stop mariadb && sudo mysql_install_db && sudo systemctl stop mysql && sudo systemctl start mariadb && sudo systemctl enable mariadb