Recovering and Changing Your MySQL Root Password

Stop MySQL:

     [root@bigboy tmp]# service mysqld stop
     Stopping MySQL:  [ OK   ]
     [root@bigboy tmp]#

Start MySQL in Safe mode with the safe_mysqld command and tell it not to read the grant tables with all the MySQL database passwords:

     [root@bigboy tmp]# safe_mysqld --skip-grant-tables &
     [1] 4815
     [root@bigboy tmp]# Starting mysqld daemon with databases from
     /var/lib/mysql
     [root@bigboy tmp]#

Use the mysqladmin command to reset the root password. In this case, you are setting it to ack33nsaltf1sh:

     [root@bigboy tmp]# mysqladmin -u root flush-privileges \
       password "ack33nsaltf1sh"
     [root@bigboy tmp]#

Restart MySQL normally:

     [root@bigboy tmp]# service mysqld restart
     Stopping MySQL: 040517 09:39:38 mysqld ended
     [ OK   ]
     Starting MySQL: [ OK   ]
     [1]+ Done                     safe_mysqld --skip-grant-tables
     [root@bigboy tmp]#