Where can I find what my "username" is?

masood131

Hi everyone,

I am trying to connect to MySQL via the command:

$db = new mysqli ('localhost', 'username', 'password', 'database');

However when I set up MySQL on my computer (I am both the sever and the client on one computer. I am a real Newbie!) The configuration setup wizard just asked me for a pssword, and using that password I am able to get to ">mysql" command prompt.

At this point I have to find out what username is connected to this password. Is there a table or a file I can go to and look this up?
Can I use any username and it will work?

ty
Masood

wempy

If you didn't pass the mysql program a user name on the command line it will be using your logged in user name
$USER if you use Linux or $USERNAME if you are on windows.

masood131

WEMPY,
So, Does that mean I place $USERNAME in for username variable in:

$db = new mysqli ('localhost', 'username', 'password', 'database');

since I am using windows.

bradgrafelman

No.

If you did not create any users after installing MySQL, the password you set is for the 'root' user (username 'root'). This username is an Administrator equivalent in Windows; i.e. it can access all databases and create new users.

Normally, you don't use root users in PHP scripts and should instead create a user for the database you'll be using.

If you're not too sharp on creating users, modifying the privilige tables, etc., you might want to check out phpMyAdmin as a graphical means of communicating with MySQL.

masood131

Hi Brad,

It helped to know that my password is assigned to 'root' in window.
However, The site you gave the url for phpMyAdmin was not very helpful to me. I went there, but I couldn't find any tab that might be helpful to me. Maybe if you are still around you can tell me where you wanted me to view exactely.

Again thanks a bunch for clearifying that. I realize using root is not the best idea and I have to create a username for the password I have, but I am not sure how to do that as of yet. I am working on that part.

best wishes

bradgrafelman

What I wanted you to do was download phpMyAdmin and install it on your server.

Installing it isn't a scary task; extract all the files to a nice place like.. /phpMyAdmin/ on your server.

Open config.inc.php and scroll down about until you see $cfg['PmaAbsoluteUri'] and change it to something like this:

$cfg['PmaAbsoluteUri'] = 'http://' . $_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'] . '/phpmyadmin/';

Then find the section with this header:

/**
 * Server(s) configuration
 */

Leave everything the same except for 'auth_type'; change that to say 'http' instead of 'config'.

Now, go to http://yoursite.com/phpmyadmin/ and a dialog will pop up asking you to login. Use username 'root' and the password you supplied during the installation of MySQL.

To add a new user, click on the "Priviliges" link.

NOTE: What version of MySQL did you install? If you installed 4.1, chances are you're running on the new password algorithm and will run into problems using phpMyAdmin.

If you still want to use PHP admin, try doing this at the command prompt:

mysql -u root -p
(enter your password)
SET PASSWORD FOR root@localhost = OLD_PASSWORD('your_password_here')

You'll need to do that BEFORE you try to login with phpMyAdmin. I'm not sure, but if you create users in phpMyAdmin, you may need to select "OLD_PASSWORD" from a dropdown when assigning the password.

EDIT: An alternate way of adding users is to read up on the GRANT syntax in MySQL's documentation. Once you login to the MySQL server as root, you would do things such as:

GRANT Privilige ON Database.* TO Username@ IDENTIFIED BY 'Password';

masood131

Brad,

Thanks ever so much. I am doing what you asked. I hope it helps. So, there is no other way to set a username and assign to it the old password, but to download the phpmysql file that you mentioned?

bradgrafelman

That's what the CLI (command line interface; go to dos and type 'mysql -u root -p') is for.

SET PASSWORD FOR root@localhost = OLD_PASSWORD('your_password_here')

uses the old password algorithm.

EDIT: If you don't want to deal with the using OLD_PASSWORD, you can do two things: downgrade to 4.0 or explicity tell MySQL to always use the old_password algorithm.

To do the latter of the 2, you need to edit my.ini/my.cnf (windows/unix) and add "old_passwords" on a line by itself under '[mysqld]'. Example:

[mysqld]

old_passwords

Port=3306

...

etc.

NOTE: Once you add the old_passwords line in the config file (MUST BE UNDER THE [mysqld] TAG) and restart or rehash MySQL, you'll STILL need to convert the root password to the old algorithm. 'old_passwords' only tells MySQL not to assign any new passwords using the new algorithm; you still have to convert any passwords already assigned. To do this, use the code I've posted above and in my previous post (the SET PASSWORD bit).