"Access Denied" error after re-installing mysql on mac

Question

I reinstalled mysql on my machine, and before that, deleted all the files. However, after the reinstallation, i tried running mysql, and got this error

mysql -u root

ERROR 1045 (28000): Access denied for user 'root'@'localhost' (using password: NO)

I did not set any password, and in fact, running mysqladmin gives the same error as well

This is totally baffling - any idea why this might be happening?

Answer 1

try this:

mysql -u root -p

and hit enter when it asks for the password. Does that let you in?

Answer 2

Did you run

mysqladmin -u root password "NEW-PASSWORD"

?