Bob Hoffman writes:
after a few yum remove / reinstalls I got this working by doing the following...
(not fully set up yet, just the very first step)
#yum install mysql mysql-server #service mysqld start #chkconfig --levels 235 mysqld on
#mysql --user=root -p
First time you log in you don't need "-p" as there is no password to input yet. That's your first mistake. "mysql -u root" would've worked just as good.
To avoid problems, after the install is done just execute mysql-secure-installation which will guide you through setting up the root password.
When you run into this kind of problems you can just remove or rename /var/lib/mysql and restart the service, it should "reset" you back to square one. Of course, make a backup first!
Cheerio
-- Nux! www.nux.ro