At times you try to access the database via the terminal and you run into the error
ERROR 1045 (28000): Access denied for user 'root'@'localhost' (using password: YES)
Even using a password for the root user still returns the same error.
This guide will take you through how to address the issue for a mariadb database server
Login to the server as root user.
Shutdown or stop the mariadb database server.
systemctl stop mariadb.service
Confirm the status that the db is offline.
systemctl status mariadb.service
Restart the database in safe mode by typing the command below.
sudo mysqld_safe --skip-grant-tables --skip-networking &
You will see an output as shown below
Access the database using the command below.
mysql -u root
Use the mysql database
use mysql
Update root password.
UPDATE user SET password=PASSWORD('new-password-here') WHERE user='root';
or
ALTER USER 'root'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'new-password-here';
Stop MariaDB Safe Mode
pkill -f mysqld_safe
pkill -f mysqld
Restart the database in normal mode.
sudo systemctl start mariadb
Done.