You can recover a MySQL database server password with the following five easy steps:

Step # 1 : Stop the MySQL service:

# /etc/init.d/mysqld stop

Step # 2: Start the MySQL server w/o password:

# mysqld_safe –skip-grant-tables &

Step # 3: Connect to the MySQL server using the MySQL client:

# mysql -u root

Output:

Welcome to the MySQL monitor.  Commands end with ; or \g.
Your MySQL connection id is 1 to server version: 4.1.15-Debian_1-log

Type ‘help;’ or ‘\h’ for help. Type ‘\c’ to clear the buffer.

mysql>

Step # 4: Set a new MySQL root user password:

mysql> use mysql;
mysql> update user set password=PASSWORD(“NEW-ROOT-PASSWORD”) where User=’root’;
mysql> flush privileges;
mysql> quit

Step # 5: Stop the MySQL server:

# /etc/init.d/mysql stop

Start the MySQL server and test it:

# /etc/init.d/mysqld start
# mysql -u root -p