[CentOS] new mysql installation, kinda stuck- sorta solved

Fri Feb 3 04:15:04 UTC 2012
Bob Hoffman <bob at bobhoffman.com>

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
(this is not the syntax I would have normaly used, but only this seemed 
to get past the hump)
<entered a password when it asked me too>
<ctrl-c out of mysql>

#mysql-secure-installation

it asked for password and I entered the new password.
It then said, okay, and asked if I wanted to change the password,
I did. (wanted a tough one).

then I finished the mysql-secure-installation questions.

Although secure-installation is set up to just hit enter on a new 
install as no password has
yet been added, that results in an error 100% of the time.
Using a different syntax mysql -u root password <new password> resulted 
in complete failure
when trying the mysql-secure-installation.

Trying to by pass the secure installation and what I would assume was 
normal for adding the two root password commands (the one above and one 
with the hostname and password) resulted in
failure (guess it is a new version with new stuff).

I am happy that mysql has finally automated that little 'wide open' 
mysql server thing.
It was not smooth to do this though.

With a fresh install of mysql and the server the secureinstallation 
script should have took <enter>
when I had no password. It does not (or not in my case)...wheee.