I am having a lot of problems with mysql server. First, I couldn't log into the database, couldn't log in as root. When I ran mysql_secure_installation, it seemed to accept the password reset but still wouldn't log me in. I ran mysqld_safe --skip-grant-tables and then manually reset the password, but this just prevented me from restarting mysql. the second time I couldn't even log in this way.
I've tried reconfiguring dpkg. I've purged all mysql* packages. At some point, this process even broke the mysql-server package, and I couldn't reinstall mysql-server. However, the installation never prompted me to set a root password, and I thought it normally did this.
Eventually, I got it installed again, somehow. But now MySQL won't start. I didn't have any schemas or tables I need in mysql, so I could just go scorched-earth in removing it.
There has to be a way for me to start over with a fresh mysql installation, set my password, and log in normally. However, I don't know how to do this.
