Re: Minor Mystery - phpmyadmin and mysql.user
On Thu, 4 Sep 2025 21:04:27 -0500
Kent West <westk@acu.edu> wrote:
> On 9/2/25 12:58 PM, Joe wrote:
> > On Tue, 2 Sep 2025 08:10:28 -0500
> > Kent West<westk@acu.edu> wrote:
> >
> >> On 9/1/25 11:33 AM, Joe wrote:
> >>> On Mon, 1 Sep 2025 07:04:17 -0500
> >>> Kent West<westk@acu.edu> wrote:
> >>>
> >>>> I'm just toying around, learning a lot, with Apache2, phpmyadmin,
> >>>> mariadb, SQL in general ... absolutely don't know what I'm doing.
> >>>>
> >>>> But I've gotten some basics accomplished; I've created a 'pma'
> >>>> user in mariadb to tinker with mariadb, and have gotten
> >>>> ppmyadmin to open in Firefox and show my databases, and have
> >>>> discovered that I can see who my users in mariadb are with a SQL
> >>>> command like 'SELECT user FROM mysql.user;'.
> >>>>
> >>>> I wanted to browse the navigation tree in the left-hand pane of
> >>>> the phpmyadmin web page, to see if I could directly see the
> >>>> users in the mysql.user table (understanding that "mysql.user"
> >>>> is a "path" to the "mysql" database, and the "user" table within
> >>>> that db).
> >>>>
> >>>> But the "user" table is not there. I spent considerable time last
> >>>> night and this morning with two AIs (Gemini, and duck.ai) trying
> >>>> to make this table visible (the AI's insist the table is there,
> >>>> but simply not visible for some reason), but nothing they
> >>>> suggested made the table visible in the navigation tree,
> >>>> although the data in that table is accessible via SQL (either
> >>>> through the phpmyadmin GUI, or the mariadb cli client, or the
> >>>> mycli client). (The AIs also insist I should not manipulate the
> >>>> user table directly, which is why it's hidden, but I'm not
> >>>> worried about manipulating that data; I just want to see the
> >>>> table there instead of just accepting that it's there; besides,
> >>>> if I hork up my mariadb/Apache2/phpmyadmin setup, nothing is
> >>>> lost; this is a throw-away setup for my learning.) The AIs seem
> >>>> to think this is Debian-specific behavior.
> >>>>
> >>>> Why can't I see this table in the navigation tree, and how do I
> >>>> force the system to let me see it there?
> >>>>
> >>> The first question is: what user are you?
> >>
> >> I created a user, "pma", who has "ALL PRIVILEGES", who I am logged
> >> into in phpmyadmin. As mentioned, he can query the "user" table,
> >> and he can see it with a SQL "SHOW TABLES;" command in the SQL
> >> "Show Query box"; he just can't see it from within the phpmyadmin
> >> GUI navigation tree.
> >>
> >>
> > OK, in my phpmyadmin tree I'm seeing 30 tables in the mysql
> > database, including user. This still looks like privileges at the
> > moment.
> >
> > When you view any table in database mysql and enter:
> >
> > select * from `user`
> >
> > in the phpmyadmin SQL box, are the privileges for root and pma
> > identical? Are both shown with Host as localhost? The User names and
> > password hashes should be different, but nothing else.
> >
> Interesting that you see `user` in your phpmyadmin navigation tree.
>
> Yes, as far as I can see, the two users have identical privs.
>
Sorry, that's as far as I can go. I've used mysql/mariadb for about
twenty years, and haven't seen anything like this. My only suggestion
now would be to dump the entire thing to SQL (if there's anything
stored in it yet), probably with command line tools rather than
phpmyadmin, completely purge mariadb and reinstall. Import the SQL. I
know that's the Windows way of fixing things, but sometimes there's
nothing else left.
--
Joe
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