Linux – Plesk: access thesql as root

You realize all the configuration lines are commented out? You need to uncomment and fill-in those fields for anything to happen. I think including this one would be sufficient (assuming you want it to prompt you for a username/password):

$cfg['Servers'][$i]['auth_type'] = 'cookie';

I think @tink had it right from the start.

An uninstall doesn't delete databases; it deletes the database software.

If you've installed MySQL, configured a root password, uninstalled MySQL and finally installed another version of MySQL your data from the first install is still there.

If it wasn't, imagine how surprised you would be when you upgraded the installed MySQL RPM on a production server. An upgrade is essentially an uninstall, then a new install.

If you truly want to start from scratch, you'll need to delete the existing files by hand. They are typically in /var/lib/mysql on Linux.

If you currently have no MySQL data you need to save and your configuration is left at the default location you should be able to fix it by:

rm -rf /var/lib/mysql/*; mysql_install_db.