Installing mysql-server doesn't create any users

[Preston Hagar]

Hello all,

I am trying to install MySQL 5 server on a i386 hardy install.  I have
installed MySQL previously on other Hardy machines with no problem,
but am currently running into trouble.  Here is what is happening:

First, I install mysql by doing the following:

sudo apt-get install mysql-server

Things seem to go fine, it downloads the file, shows me the screen
where I can create a password for the root user, then starts the MySQL
server.  I have gone through this with both entering a password and
leaving the password blank.

Once everything finishes, I try to log into the mysql server:

mysql -p mysql
I enter the password I created during install but still get
ERROR 1045 (28000): Access denied for user 'root'@'localhost' (using
password: YES)

I tried
mysql -u root -p mysql

and get the same thing.  I also tried without a password:
mysql mysql
ERROR 1045 (28000): Access denied for user 'root'@'localhost' (using
password: NO)

still with no luck.  I also tried several different usernames (mysql,
admin) with no luck

I have tried doing
 dpkg-reconfigure --force mysql-server-5.0

which brings up the enter password dialog and have tried both entering
a password and leaving it blank, neither of which seems to work.  I
have tried with the mysql server running and off, as well as
restarting it after each reconfigure.

After some googling, I found that I could stop the mysql server and
start it from the command line like this:

mysqld --skip-grant-tables

This will allow me to get into the system by doing the following:
mysql -u root mysql

I can then SELECT * from user; which only returns one row with the
user debian-sys-maint   From what I have found, this is some debian
specific user account and isn't meant to be used.  I have tried from
here
to do:

mysql> create user 'root'@'localhost';
ERROR 1290 (HY000): The MySQL server is running with the
--skip-grant-tables option so it cannot execute this statement

but get the error you can see above.  The same error occurs if I try
something like:

mysql> grant ALL PRIVILEGES ON *.* to 'root'@'localhost' with grant option;

I will be the first to admin my weakness when it comes to MySQL.  I
normally favor PostgreSQL, but need MySQL for WordPress.  I have spent
some time Googling trying to find another way to create a user, but am
coming up at a loss.  It seems all of the command line utilities
require a valid user to create other users.  I am not sure what the
password for the debian-sys-maint user is, so I don't think I can use
that.  What I need is to create a user during install, like the
dpkg-reconfigure should do, but since that is obfuscated and doesn't
seem to show the command it runs, I am not sure what command I need to
run.  If I can't get this working, I can always just install it from a
tarball straight from MySQL, but I would prefer to use the Ubuntu
package.

Does anyone have any suggestions of something to try or somewhere to
look?  I am sure I am just missing something.

Thanks for your help.

Preston