MySQL fails on: mysql "ERROR 1524 (HY000): Plugin 'auth_socket' is not loaded"

Question

My local environment is:

• fresh Ubuntu 16.04
• with PHP 7

• with installed MySQL 5.7

  sudo apt-get install mysql-common mysql-server
  

---

When I tried to login to MySQL (via CLI):

mysql -u root -p

I came across an cyclic issue with 3 steps.

1) First was some socket issue

ERROR 2002 (HY000): Can't connect to local MySQL server through socket '/var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock'

Solution: restarting PC.

Which led to another error:

2) With access denied

ERROR 1698 (28000): Access denied for user 'root'@'localhost'.

Possible issue? Wrong password for "root" user!

Solution: reset root password with this tutorial.

With correct password and working socket, there comes last error.

3) Incorrect auth plugin

mysql "ERROR 1524 (HY000): Plugin 'unix_socket' is not loaded"

Here I stopped or somehow got to 1) again.

Answer 1

I got a solution!

When resetting root password at step 2), also change the auth plugin to mysql_native_password:

use mysql;
update user set authentication_string=PASSWORD("") where User='root';
update user set plugin="mysql_native_password" where User='root';  # THIS LINE

flush privileges;
quit;

This allowed me to log in successfully!

---

Full code solution

1. run bash commands

1. first, run these bash commands

sudo /etc/init.d/mysql stop # stop mysql service
sudo mysqld_safe --skip-grant-tables & # start mysql without password
# enter -> go
mysql -uroot # connect to mysql

2. then run mysql commands => copy paste this to cli manually

use mysql; # use mysql table
update user set authentication_string=PASSWORD("") where User='root'; # update password to nothing
update user set plugin="mysql_native_password" where User='root'; # set password resolving to default mechanism for root user

flush privileges;
quit;

3. run more bash commands

sudo /etc/init.d/mysql stop 
sudo /etc/init.d/mysql start # reset mysql
# try login to database, just press enter at password prompt because your password is now blank
mysql -u root -p 

4. Socket issue (from your comments)

When you see a socket error, a community came with 2 possible solutions:

sudo mkdir -p /var/run/mysqld; sudo chown mysql /var/run/mysqld
sudo mysqld_safe --skip-grant-tables &

(thanks to @Cerin)

Or

mkdir -p /var/run/mysqld && chown mysql:mysql /var/run/mysqld  

(thanks to @Peter Dvukhrechensky)

---

Blind paths and possible edge errors

Use 127.0.0.1 instead of localhost

mysql -uroot # "-hlocalhost" is default

Can lead to "missing file" or slt error.

mysql -uroot -h127.0.0.1

Works better.

Skip the socket issue

I've found many ways to create mysqld.sock file, change access rights or symlink it. It was not the issue after all.

Skip the my.cnf file

The issue also was not there. If you are not sure, this might help you.