I've just removed and reinstalled mysql on my Amazon EC2 server. When I went to change the root password on the new install:
sudo /usr/bin/mysqladmin -u root password 'MYNEWPASSWORD'
I get an access denied error:
error: 'Access denied for user 'root'@'localhost' (using password: NO)'
Has it held onto the old root account somehow?
I've tried starting mysql skipping the grant tables, but this just removes the command prompt and sits there. Anyone have any ideas why this is happening?