I am getting following error in Ubuntu 18 although I haven't set any password for SQL

Question

mysql -u root -p
Enter password: 
ERROR 1045 (28000): Access denied for user 'root'@'localhost' (using password: YES)

I am unable to find the solution for this.

Answer 1

Just run

mysql -u root

This will not prompt for a password.

Answer 2

According to the official docs there are multiple cases:

1. There was set a random password during installation

   • Initialize the data directory if it wasn't during installation: mysqld --initialize
   • Get the generated password by looking in the error log: cat /var/log/mysql/error.log | grep root@localhost
   • Log in with that password: mysql -u root -p (in some cases you have to run this with sudo)
   • Change the password: ALTER USER 'root'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'new_password';

2. There was not set a random password during installation

   • Initialize the data directory if it wasn't during installation: mysqld --initialize-insecure
   • Log in with that password: mysql -u root --skip-password (maybe you have to try also with sudo)
   • Change the password: ALTER USER 'root'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'new_password';

Hope that helps.