Thank you for your help. I was actually using MySQL, not MariaDB. I tried setting the MySQL root password to null, but then ran into a different error. So I've now replaced MySQL with MariaDB. Since the 'Koha on Debian' guide says that you can use either MariaDB or MySQL, I think it ought to make clear any differences in configuration that are needed when using MySQL, such as the need for a null password. -----Original Message----- From: René Seindal <rene@seindal.it> Sent: 26 February 2023 17:59 To: Thomas Daly <letterbox@daladi.com> Cc: koha@lists.katipo.co.nz Subject: Re: [Koha] Creating a database On Debian you don't need to do anything. The superuser has access to the database without a password. It is described in the package documentation: /usr/share/doc/mariadb-server-10.5/README.Debian.gz * ROOT USER AUTHENTICATION VIA UNIX SOCKET ========================================== On new installs no root password is set and no debian-sys-maint user is created anymore. Instead the MariaDB root account is set to be authenticated using the Unix socket, e.g. any mysqld invocation by root or via sudo will let the user see the mysqld prompt. You may never ever delete the mysql user "root". Although it has no password is set, the unix_auth plugin ensure that it can only be run locally as the root user. The credentials in /etc/mysql/debian.cnf specify the user which is used by the init scripts to stop the server and perform log rotation. This used to be the debian-sys-maint user which is no longer used as root can run directly. If you have start/stop problems make sure that the /etc/mysql/debian.cnf file specifies the root user and no password. In the long run please stop using that file as is has been obsoleted. On 2023-02-26 15:16, Thomas Daly wrote:
Hello,
I'm following the 'Koha on Debian <https://wiki.koha-community.org/wiki/Koha_on_Debian> ' guide but have got stuck at the 'Create a Koha instance' part. This section doesn't say anything about supplying the 'koha-create' command with a MySQL username and password. I don't see how 'koha-create' can create the database if it doesn't know the MySQL root password.
I tried putting the MySQL root login details in both /etc/koha/passwd and /etc/mysql/koha-common.cnf, but I get this error:
# koha-create --create-db --passwdfile /etc/koha/passwd zilib
WARNING: The koha-common.cnf file is a dead soft link!
ERROR 1045 (28000): Access denied for user 'root'@'localhost' (using password: NO)
koha-common.cnf is not actually a dead link but a text file.