mysql password problems

[Graham Ashton <graham@mirror.bt.co.uk>]

I've just started fiddling with mysql (from the standard .deb files) on
my hamm box, and am having problems with permissions/privileges. I can't
create databases with mysqladmin.

I can't even connect to the mysql privilege tables to alter the
permissions, as I don't seem to have the permissions!

This is what I've done;

host% mysql mysql
ERROR 1044: Access denied for user: '@localhost' to database 'mysql'
host% mysql -u root mysql
ERROR 1045: Access denied for user: 'root@localhost' (Using password: NO)
host% mysql -u mysql mysql
ERROR 1044: Access denied for user: '@localhost' to database 'mysql'

I seem to be lacking the one important piece of info, and that's the
password for the 'root' user. I'm assuming that it's a debian thing, as
when I last compiled mysql from source there was no default password for
the 'root' user, which meant that I could connect without a password and
change it to whatever I liked.

I'm sure this must be documented somewhere on my box, and I'm sure it'll
tell me the password. It's just that I can't find it, not even with the
help of dwww!

Any clues on where to look, or what the password ought to be?

Thanks in advance.

-- 
Graham