PHP & MySQL® Web Development All-in-One Desk Reference for Dummies®

3.7. Troubleshooting MySQL

Some of the more common MySQL installation problems are described in this section.

3.7.1. Displays error message: Access denied

When you attempt to access your MySQL server, an error message similar to the following is displayed:

Access denied for user 'root'@'localhost' (using password: YES)

The error message means that MySQL did not recognize the account name and password. The message gives as much information as possible. In this case, the message shows that access was attempted from localhost using the account name root and using a password. If you accessed using a blank password, the message would show using password: NO. Either MySQL didn't recognize the account name, the account name isn't allowed to access from this host, or the password is incorrect.

Sometimes the error message shows the account name as ODBC. This is a default account name that MySQL uses. Usually this means that the MySQL server didn't receive any account name/password information at all . . . or none that it could understand.

MySQL access is described in Book III; for more about account names and passwords, see Book III, Chapter 2.

3.7.2. Displays error message: Client does not support authentication protocol

MySQL passwords are stored in a table in the mysql database. When MySQL was updated to version 4.1, the password encryption was changed, making the passwords more secure. However, older MySQL clients don't understand the new password encryption, and they display an ...