GRANT, Privilege etc

[Adam Smith]

I have a new DB provided by my ISP don't know details of installation,
setup etc.

I can log in as anybody except root.

mysql -h localhost -u mysql
Welcome to the MySQL monitor. Commands end with ; or \g.
Your MySQL connection id is 71 to server version: 4.0.16-log

mysql -h localhost -u xxxxx
Welcome to the MySQL monitor. Commands end with ; or \g.

mysql -h localhost -u skrtfl
Welcome to the MySQL monitor. Commands end with ; or \g.

....
....

mysql -h localhost -u root
ERROR 1045: Access denied for user: 'root@localhost ' (Using password: NO)

using the sys root password ===>
mysql -h localhost -u root -p********
ERROR 1045: Access denied for user: 'root@localhost ' (Using password: YES)

using another, actually only a slight variant of the former "the
terminal question mark" as part of the password ===>
mysql -h localhost -u root -p********?
mysql: No match.

Why is there a difference re: ERROR 1045: and mysql: No match ?

Not knowing what my ISP has done, what is the best approach to reset
password (GRANT etc)

Thanks

-- Adam --

[Adam Smith]

I took this approach [ I am running FreeBSD 4.9 O/S ]

[i] Brought the system down with a kill -9 pid

[ii] Restart w/o GRANT TABLES
/usr/local/bin/mysqld_safe --skip-grant-tables &

[iii] ps waux | grep mysql ===>

root 59017 0.0 0.1 648 316 p4 I 4:42PM 0:00.01 /bin/sh
/usr/local/bin/mysqld_safe --skip-grant-tables

mysql 59048 0.0 3.8 59784 19576 p4 S 4:42PM 0:01.66
/usr/local/libexec/mysqld --basedir=/usr/local --datadir=/var/db/m

[iv] mysqladmin -u root password ******** ===>
mysqladmin: connect to server at 'localhost' failed
error: 'Access denied for user: 'root@localhost ' (Using password: NO)'

So, the server seems to be running w/o the GRANT TABLES, but yet I
can't change the root password and for that matter can't assign privileges

Now! What else can I do ????

Thanks

-- Adam --
Adam Smith wrote:

I have a new DB provided by my ISP don't know details of installation,
setup etc.

I can log in as anybody except root.

mysql -h localhost -u mysql
Welcome to the MySQL monitor. Commands end with ; or \g.
Your MySQL connection id is 71 to server version: 4.0.16-log

mysql -h localhost -u xxxxx
Welcome to the MySQL monitor. Commands end with ; or \g.

mysql -h localhost -u skrtfl
Welcome to the MySQL monitor. Commands end with ; or \g.

...
...

mysql -h localhost -u root
ERROR 1045: Access denied for user: 'root@localhost ' (Using password: NO)

using the sys root password ===>
mysql -h localhost -u root -p********
ERROR 1045: Access denied for user: 'root@localhost ' (Using password: YES)

using another, actually only a slight variant of the former "the
terminal question mark" as part of the password ===>
mysql -h localhost -u root -p********?
mysql: No match.

Why is there a difference re: ERROR 1045: and mysql: No match ?

Not knowing what my ISP has done, what is the best approach to reset
password (GRANT etc)

Thanks

-- Adam --