Cannot Set MySQL Password

Question

I recently installed the latest version of MySql. I tried to set a password in terminal using the steps shown below.
However, I get the error message below.
Welcome to Darwin!
[localhost:~] helpprob% alias mysql=/usr/local/mysql/bin/mysql
[localhost:~] helpprob% mysql -u root -p
Enter password:
ERROR 1045 (28000): Access denied for user 'root'@'localhost' (using password: NO)
[localhost:~] helpprob%
Maybe terminal wants me to type my previous sql password. If so,I don't remember what is is. I would appreciate any help.

Answer 1

See the MySQL document: http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/4.1/en/resetting-permissions.html
The document says "Log on to your system as ... the Unix root user". But on MacOSX you can't do this. Just login to your Mac as an admin user and use "sudo" to get Unix-root privilege (do not confuse with the MySQL-root privilege):
(1) Shutdown the MySQL server
mac$ sudo kill `cat /usr/local/mysql/data/hostname.domain.pid`
Password: (enter admin password for your Mac; not the mysql password)
(If you have the MySQL Preference Pane in "System Preferences", then you can use it to shutdown the server)
(2) create mysql-init (as described in the document) in your home directory, and
(3) restart the server with a special option
mac$ sudo /usr/local/mysql/bin/mysqld_safe --init-file=$HOME/mysql-init &
(4) delete mysql-init in your home directory.