Why do I get this Access denied? error.

• Have you installed the MySQL grant tables with the script `mysql_install_db'? Test by executing mysql -u root test. This should not give an error. You can also check if you have a file 'user.ISD' in the mysql database directory (ordinary install_dir/var/mysql/user.ISD).
• One a fresh installation you should use 'mysql -u root mysql' to access the grant tables.
• Remember that you have to do mysqladmin reload each time you change the grant tables. Otherwise the old tables are still used!
• For testing, you should start the mysqld daemon with the --without-grant-tables option. Now you can change the MySQL grant tables and use the script mysqlaccess to check if your grant worked. mysqladmin reload tells the mysqld daemon to start using the new grant tables.
• Even if you have access problems with perl, python, or ODBC, always test your privilege problems with mysql -u user database or mysql -u user -ppassword database. Please notice that there is no space between -p and the password. One can also use the --password=your_password syntax to give the password!
• If you get the error 'Access denied' when trying to connect to the database with mysql -u user database then you have a problem with the 'user' table. Check this by doing mysql -u root mysql and select * from user. You should get an entry with 'hostname' and 'user' matching your computers hostname and your username. If the client and the server are running on the same host and you haven't used the --host option to mysql and you are not using MIT threads, 'localhost' is a synonym for your hostname.
• The Access denied error message will tell you who you are trying to log in as, from which host you are trying to log in, and if you were using a password or not. You should normally have one entry in the user table that exactly matches your host and user, exactly as given in the error message.
• If you get the error 'Host is not allowed to connect to this MySQL server' when you try to connect to a MySQL server on another machine then you don't have any row in the user table that can match the remote machine!
• If mysql -u root test works but mysql -h your_hostname -u root test gives 'Access denied' then you don't have the right name for your host in the user table. For example if you have an entry with host 'tcx' in the 'user' table, but your DNS tells MySQL that your hostname is 'tcx.subnet.se' then the entry will not work. Test by adding a record with the IP of your host in the 'user' table. You can, natuarally, also add a host with a wildcard (for example 'tcx%') in the 'user table' (but using hostnames ending with % is pretty insecure).
• When using MIT threads, localhost is never used. All connections to the mysqld daemon is via TCP IP and you must have your real hostname in 'user' even if you are running the client on the same host as the server.
• If you get the error 'Access to database denied' then you have a problem with the db table. If the used entry in the db table has an empty hostname, check also the corresponding entry in the 'host' table.
• If mysql -u user database works on the server machine, but mysql -u host -u user database doesn't work on another client machine, then you don't have the client machine in the 'user' or the 'db' table.
• If you can't get password to work, remember that passwords must be inserted with the PASSWORD function. See section A example of permission setup.
• If mysql -u user test works but mysql -u user other_database doesn't work, you don't have the other_database in the 'db' table.
• If you get 'Access to database denied' when using the SELECT ... INTO OUTFILE or LOAD DATA SQL commands then you probably don't have the File_priv privilege set for you in the user table.
• If everything else fails, start the mysqld daemon with: --debug=d,general,query. This will print info about the host and user that tries to connect and also information about each command issued. See section Debugging MySQL.
• If you have any other problems with the MySQL grant tables and feel you must post the problem to the list, always add a dump of the MySQL grant tables. You can dump the tables with the mysqldump mysql command. As always, post your problem with the mysqlbug script.
• If you get the error Can't connect to local mySQL server or Can't connect to MySQL server on some_hostname this means that the daemon mysqld is not running or you are trying to connect to the wrong socket or port. Check that the socket exists (normally /tmp/mysql.sock) or try to connect to the port with telnet: telnet hostname 3306. You can also try mysqladmin version to get some more information.

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