[TriLUG] hello and mysql help please

[Aaron S. Joyner]

Randall Barlow wrote:

> Hey Jason, I would recommend checking out http://forums.mysql.com/ for
> answers to your question since you are working with windows and not
> linux.  Probably someone on there has dealt with the same issues you
> face, or if not, I'm sure they could be of help!
>
> jason watts wrote:
>
>> hello,
>>
>> i was once a member of this list (along with charlug) but i have no
>> idea why i all of a suddenly stopped receiving emails.
>>
>> anyways, hello, im a student at uncc and will be graduating in
>> December if all goes well.
>>
>> i am trying to follow a howto on installing an ids called BASE for
>> part of my senior project. while setting up the mysql server, it
>> would seem i had mistyped my root password. in trying to fix my
>> problems, i uninstalled it, and reinstalled it, all the database and
>> user info was the same. i found a link on mysql's website that tells
>> you how to reset the password, all it manages to do is cause the
>> terminal to hang, a crtl-c will not kill the process. to get mysql to
>> restart, i have to restart the whole computer. and it still wont take
>> my root password.   i can log in with my other user/passwords eg snort
>>
>> i believe i have deleted the root user.
>>
>> all i want to do right now is figure out how to remove the whole
>> thing in its entirety and reinstall it. if i cant do this, im afraid
>> i will have to reinstall windows just to wipe the database info off
>> the harddrive... i would REALLY prefer to not do this
>>
>> it is mysql 5.x and running on windows xp   (if i cant make it work
>> on xp, i am to step up to server, and then to centos, but that wont
>> happen until monday)
>>
>> i appreciate any help you gents can provide
>> Jason
>>
>>
>
In short, the simplest most fool-proof method would be to uninstall
mysql and remove the "mysql" database.  This has tables like "user",
"db", etc. which contain the login information that control who can do
what with the databases.  Removing the 'mysql' database and then
reinstalling should get you a fresh / default copy.  On a Linux box I
could tell you that the files associated with the database live in
/var/lib/mysql/mysql/, and that running your distro's package remove
command (rpm -e mysql-server || dpkg -P mysql-server-<ver>) and them
blowing away that directory via `rm -rf /var/lib/mysql/mysql/` followed
by a fresh reinstall of the package would do nicely.  As for translating
that into windows... unfortunately, I don't do that anymore.  :)

Best of luck,
Aaron S. Joyner