Recover/Replace MySQL Root Password – UNIX

Forgetting or never having the root password for a MySQL database can be rather difficult if it is now your job to support it.

Note: You will need root access on the UNIX box to follow these commands.

# Debian / Ubuntu
sudo /etc/init.d/mysql stop

# CentOS / Red Hat
sudo /bin/systemctl stop mariadb
#sudo /bin/systemctl stop mysql

mysqld_safe --skip-grant-tables &

mysql -u root

use mysql;
update user set password=PASSWORD("NEW-ROOT-PASSWORD") where User='root';
flush privileges;
quit

# Debian / Ubuntu
sudo /etc/init.d/mysql stop
sudo /etc/init.d/mysql start

# CentOS / Red Hat
sudo /bin/systemctl stop mariadb
#sudo /bin/systemctl stop mysql
sudo /bin/systemctl start mariadb
#sudo /bin/systemctl start mysql

If for some reason you get an error saying mysql database doesn’t exist you may need to remove mysql/mariadb configuration files (/etc/my.cnf /etc/my.cnf.d/) or reinstall. Understand that that if you do that you may loose some or all data.