33

I recently installed LAMP on Ubuntu 13.04(32-bit) but forgot my phpMyAdmin password. How can I reset its password without re-installing it?

Improve this question

4 Answers 4

Reset to default
44

Simply change or reset your MySQL root password by doing the following:

  1. Stop the MySQL server

    sudo service mysql stop

  2. Start mysqld

    sudo mysqld --skip-grant-tables &

  3. Login to MySQL as root

    mysql -u root mysql

  4. Change MYSECRET with your new root password

    UPDATE user SET Password=PASSWORD('MYSECRET') WHERE User='root'; FLUSH PRIVILEGES; exit;

  5. Kill mysqld 

    sudo pkill mysqld

  6. Start mysql

    sudo service mysql start

  7. Login to phpmyadmin as root with your new password

Improve this answer
7
  • Can you please explain the use of #2 Start mysqld? Also, how will I be able to execute #3 since I don't remember my MySQL password anymore?
    – tHe_VaGaBonD
    Jul 22, 2013 at 16:40
  • 1
    The idea for #2 is that you are spawning a version of the MySQL daemon without a password. This allows you to reset it on step 4.
    – jctoledo
    Aug 6, 2013 at 15:54
  • Using Ubuntu 16 I was not able to run mysqld manually - trying to create socket and socket lock file in a dir that didn't even exist! But if you look at the very NEXT answer (which is not the accepted answer) that is what I needed - I stupidly forgot the password for the phpmyadmin user, and there it is, in plain text, in the phpmyadmin.conf folder!
    – Brian B
    Sep 6, 2017 at 18:09
  • ERROR 1054 (42S22): Unknown column 'Password' in 'field list'
    – Tiago Gouvêa
    Dec 26, 2018 at 17:04
  • I get 2020-09-22 10:40:17 140163612645568 [Note] mysqld (mysqld 10.2.14-MariaDB) starting as process 23841 ... mysqld: Please consult the Knowledge Base to find out how to run mysqld as root! 2020-09-22 10:40:17 140163612645568 [ERROR] Aborting at step 2
    – Black
    Sep 22, 2020 at 8:40
37

You don't actually need to reset your username and password, if you can see them.

In your terminal window, type:

sudo -H gedit /etc/dbconfig-common/phpmyadmin.conf

This will open your phpmyadmin configurations.

There, you will see your username under dbc_dbuser='your_username' and password under dbc_dbpass='your_password'.

Improve this answer
5
  • I could not able to find **/etc/dbconfig-common/ ** path. Both "MySQL Database" & "Apache Web Server" running successfully. Any suggestion !! This I'm trying to work on Wordpress.
    – CoDe
    Aug 1, 2016 at 9:41
  • 1
    Don't forget to restart mysql " sudo service mysql restart "
    – Mansour Alnasser
    Aug 24, 2016 at 15:15
  • 1
    I found a user called phpmyadmin, but not my main root user. That user also did not have permissions to add new users or databases!
    – Yahya Uddin
    Aug 24, 2016 at 22:57
  • 1
    Nice solution !
    – ivva
    Feb 26, 2018 at 17:14
  • I get Directory '/etc/dbconfig-common' does not exist
    – Black
    Sep 22, 2020 at 8:42
9

There is a workaround on Debian (Ubuntu, Mint, etc.) where there is a second admin account automatically generated by the system called 

debian-sys-maint

You can see (and should not change) its password via 

sudo nano /etc/mysql/debian.cnf

It is possible (sure on Ubuntu 16.04) to use that account both in phpMyAdmin as well as in the command line 

mysql -u debian-sys-maint -p

The account has exactly the same privileges as phpMyAdmin's / MySQL's root.

Improve this answer
0
0

I was wondering why my login was failing even though I never changed the password.

It was failing because I rebootet the server and the mysql server was not startet automatically. So I startet the server and it worked again.

Improve this answer

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.