Reset the Root MySQL Password on Ubuntu 10.04

It’s a commonality among sleep-deprived developers to set up a sandbox at 3AM and wake up not remembering the passwords that were set before the retreat into la-la land. Well, resetting the root user’s administrative password for MySQL is a little tedious, but it’s not impossible:

• sudo /etc/init.d/mysql stop
• sudo /usr/sbin/mysqld --skip-grant-tables --skip-networking &
  You will now be able to log into MySQL as root with no password, since you have launched the MySQL daemon with the flag to skip the privilege index.
• mysql -u root
  • FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
  • SET PASSWORD FOR root@'localhost' = PASSWORD('password');
  • UPDATE mysql.user SET Password=PASSWORD('newpwd') WHERE User='root';
  • FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
• sudo /etc/init.d/mysql stop
• sudo /etc/init.d/mysql start