Changing Passwords in MySQL

To set the root's password the first time:

$ mysqladmin -u root password NEWPASSWORD

To change the root's password:

$ mysqladmin -u root -p'OLDPASSWORD' password NEWPASSWORD

Or you can use the MySQL Client:

mysql> USE mysql;
mysql> UPDATE user SET PASSWORD=PASSWORD("NEWPASSWORD") WHERE User='root';
mysql> FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

To reset root's password, run mysqld_safe --skip-grant-tables:

$ /etc/init.d/mysqld stop
$ mysqld_safe --skip-grant-tables &
$ mysql -u root
mysql> UPDATE mysql.user SET PASSWORD=PASSWORD("NEWPASSWORD") WHERE User='root';
mysql> FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
mysql> quit;

# Restart mysqld
$ /etc/init.d/mysqld stop
$ /etc/init.d/mysqld start