I'm trying to reset my mariadb password following this site -> https://www.rosehosting.com/blog/how...root-password/
but when I enter mysql -u root I get the following error:

Any ideas? Thanks.

Your mysql server is not running.

Did this...

... produce any errors?

user@mothership ~ $ service mysql stop
user@mothership ~ $ mysqld_safe --skip-grant-tables &
[1] 6576
user@mothership ~ $ 161127 17:16:39 mysqld_safe Logging to syslog.
161127 17:16:39 mysqld_safe Starting mysqld daemon with databases from /var/lib/mysql
161127 17:16:39 mysqld_safe mysqld from pid file /var/run/mysqld/mysqld.pid ended

[1]+ Done mysqld_safe --skip-grant-tables
user@mothership ~ $ mysql -u root
ERROR 2002 (HY000): Can't connect to local MySQL server through socket '/var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock' (2 "No such file or directory")

The blank line you see between mysql.pd ended and the [1]+ Done, that was just a blinking cursor until I hit enter. Any ideas? Thanks.

Could you check if you have /etc/my.cnf or /etc/my.cnf.d/server.cnf configuration file?

Then look for a line like:
Check if it is mysql.sock or mysqld.sock and the path

Then list /var/run/mysql and /var/lib/mysql directories

What keefaz says, but...

That says that it ended prematurely.

Check the log file and see what it says.

You my need to start with mysqld_safe using the --datadir and --pid-file options, something like this (with your actual system paths)

I found that line and it's in /etc/mysql/mariadb.conf.d/50-mysqld_safe.cnf
and it reads

Update

I don't know what this means but I just navigated to /var/run/mysqld/ and there is not mysqld.sock file there, or any other file apart from . & .. But I'm sure I don't know what I'm talking about.

OK, lets back up a step and ask all the right questions...

What distro and version is this?

Is this on a remote VPS or a local system?

What version of MariaDB or MySQL?

Does this mysql server start normally? Do service mysql start/stop report success?

I just re-installed Linux Mint 18 (Cinnamon) over Mint 17 and I'm trying to get all my file and packages working again. This is running on localhost and I couldn't really tell you how it's been running since I've just got it installed on Mint 18. I also can't be sure of the version but I think it's MariaDB 10.

So, if it was a reinstall then it is most likely that MySQL ws never initialized on this machine. If so, this isn't a password change problem but a database initialization problem.

If you are sure that you had data in the MySQL database on the old Mint and did not reformat the drive for the new Mint, we will need to find that first and back it up - so decide this first.

If you had no old data to save or reformatted the drive we really just need to initialize the database and get it started.

To do that you will need to run mysql_install_db, then get it started with mysqld_safe.

I am not a Mint user, so you may want to check their docs specific to your version.

We already know it is installed because mysqld_safe is trying to start, so we just need to initialize it and start the server.

The basic steps common to most distros are, as root...

When you run mysql_secure_installation you will get the chance to set the root password.

Okay I'll give that a try. In the past I have just installed MariaDB on my new machine and sourced what few db projects I had exported before I wiped out my machine. Mostly just a few small databases from courses I'm following on udemy.com

But of course I can't source my exported files if I can't even login.

That would have been a pretty important thing to mention in your initial problem description, by the way. Please review the Site FAQ for guidance on asking complete questions as that will help us help you as efficiently as possible.

You can check version whether it is running or not:

You have not yet told us...

* What the log says when you try to start with mysqld_safe as mentioned above
* Whether it starts normally or not which would confirm whether it has ever been started on this installation

So we still don't know whether it has ever been initialized or not, even though I suspect it has not.

This says that you did export all your valuable data and wiped the machine before reinstalling.

In other words, you do have backups of your data...? How did you export those, mysqldump?

And the initialization method I posted above is a general case for MySQL with several possible options - it is not copy/paste code. Please see your distro's documentation for your case.

And you can't login unless the server is running, and the server cannot run until it has been initialized...

user@mothership ~ $ mysql --version
mysql Ver 15.1 Distrib 10.0.27-MariaDB, for debian-linux-gnu (x86_64) using readline 5.2


user@mothership ~ $ mysqld_safe
161130 19:04:19 mysqld_safe Logging to syslog.
cat: /var/run/mysqld/mysqld.pid: Permission denied
rm: cannot remove '/var/run/mysqld/mysqld.pid': Permission denied
161130 19:04:19 mysqld_safe Fatal error: Can't remove the pid file:
/var/run/mysqld/mysqld.pid
Please remove it manually and start /usr/bin/mysqld_safe again;
mysqld daemon not started

user@mothership ~ $ sudo mysqld_safe
[sudo] password for user:
161130 19:04:30 mysqld_safe Logging to syslog.
161130 19:04:30 mysqld_safe A mysqld process already exists
user@mothership ~ $

No I don't think it's ever been started since my new installation of Mint 18 over Mint 17. I used phpmyadmin to export my databases.

Thanks, that helps and confirms it is installed.

That would definitely indicate that it is running, or has been started and killed leaving the pid file behind.

So, let's verify that one way or the other. What does this say (as root, or sudo if necessary)?

That will tell us if the process is running, and what parameters were used to start it.

Then as asked previously, does it start and stop normally? That is, do these produce any error/success messages?

Form there we can plot the path to the desired end.

OK, as I recall PHPMyAdmin uses mysqldump. I was mostly looking for some confidence that your data were safe and usable.

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