Mysql – thesql: Unable to Grant while using root user, what could be the reason

MySQL

I have a mysql server which i'm able to log into using root password (no password) but for some reason I'm unable to grant other users access to mysql.
When I run:

mysql> grant all on *.* to 'lel'@'%' identified by '123456';

I get this error:

ERROR 1045 (28000): Access denied for user 'root'@'localhost' (using password: NO)

I've tried doing the next steps in order to fix root user:

/etc/init.d/mysqld stop
mysqld_safe --skip-grant-tables &
mysql -u root
mysql> use mysql;
mysql> update user set password=PASSWORD("newrootpassword") where User='root';
mysql> flush privileges;
mysql> quit
/etc/init.d/mysqld stop
/etc/init.d/mysqld start

When I check root's user in mysql, I can see it has all the relevant GRANT privileges:

mysql> select * from mysql.user where User like 'root'\G;
*************************** 1. row ***************************
                 Host: localhost
                 User: root
             Password: 
          Select_priv: Y
          Insert_priv: Y
          Update_priv: Y
          Delete_priv: Y
          Create_priv: Y
            Drop_priv: Y
          Reload_priv: Y
        Shutdown_priv: Y
         Process_priv: Y
            File_priv: Y
           Grant_priv: Y
      References_priv: Y
           Index_priv: Y
           Alter_priv: Y
         Show_db_priv: Y
           Super_priv: Y
Create_tmp_table_priv: Y
     Lock_tables_priv: Y
         Execute_priv: Y
      Repl_slave_priv: Y
     Repl_client_priv: Y
     Create_view_priv: Y
       Show_view_priv: Y
  Create_routine_priv: Y
   Alter_routine_priv: Y
     Create_user_priv: Y
           Event_priv: Y
         Trigger_priv: Y
             ssl_type: 
           ssl_cipher: 
          x509_issuer: 
         x509_subject: 
        max_questions: 0
          max_updates: 0
      max_connections: 0
 max_user_connections: 0
*************************** 2. row ***************************
                 Host: centolel
                 User: root
             Password: 
          Select_priv: Y
          Insert_priv: Y
          Update_priv: Y
          Delete_priv: Y
          Create_priv: Y
            Drop_priv: Y
          Reload_priv: Y
        Shutdown_priv: Y
         Process_priv: Y
            File_priv: Y
           Grant_priv: Y
      References_priv: Y
           Index_priv: Y
           Alter_priv: Y
         Show_db_priv: Y
           Super_priv: Y
Create_tmp_table_priv: Y
     Lock_tables_priv: Y
         Execute_priv: Y
      Repl_slave_priv: Y
     Repl_client_priv: Y
     Create_view_priv: Y
       Show_view_priv: Y
  Create_routine_priv: Y
   Alter_routine_priv: Y
     Create_user_priv: Y
           Event_priv: Y
         Trigger_priv: Y
             ssl_type: 
           ssl_cipher: 
          x509_issuer: 
         x509_subject: 
        max_questions: 0
          max_updates: 0
      max_connections: 0
 max_user_connections: 0
*************************** 3. row ***************************
                 Host: 127.0.0.1
                 User: root
             Password: 
          Select_priv: Y
          Insert_priv: Y
          Update_priv: Y
          Delete_priv: Y
          Create_priv: Y
            Drop_priv: Y
          Reload_priv: Y
        Shutdown_priv: Y
         Process_priv: Y
            File_priv: Y
           Grant_priv: Y
      References_priv: Y
           Index_priv: Y
           Alter_priv: Y
         Show_db_priv: Y
           Super_priv: Y
Create_tmp_table_priv: Y
     Lock_tables_priv: Y
         Execute_priv: Y
      Repl_slave_priv: Y
     Repl_client_priv: Y
     Create_view_priv: Y
       Show_view_priv: Y
  Create_routine_priv: Y
   Alter_routine_priv: Y
     Create_user_priv: Y
           Event_priv: Y
         Trigger_priv: Y
             ssl_type: 
           ssl_cipher: 
          x509_issuer: 
         x509_subject: 
        max_questions: 0
          max_updates: 0
      max_connections: 0
 max_user_connections: 0
3 rows in set (0.00 sec)

show grants for root; gives me:

mysql> show grants for root;
ERROR 1141 (42000): There is no such grant defined for user 'root' on host '%'

Edit #1:

[root@home mysql]# mysql -h localhost -u root -p
Enter password: 
Welcome to the MySQL monitor.  Commands end with ; or \g.
Your MySQL connection id is 6
Server version: 5.5.36 MySQL Community Server (GPL) by Remi

Copyright (c) 2000, 2014, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

Oracle is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation and/or its
affiliates. Other names may be trademarks of their respective
owners.

Type 'help;' or '\h' for help. Type '\c' to clear the current input statement.

mysql> grant all privileges on *.* to 'itaig'@'localhost' with grant option;

ERROR 1045 (28000): Access denied for user 'root'@'localhost' (using password: NO)

Thanks in advance

Best Answer

I've done everything I know to fix this issue without re-installing mysql but to no avail... I believe a file got corrupted or something, otherwise I can't imagine why I bumped into these errors. I've saved mysql data on some external disk, re-installed mysql, copied back the data and now it's working like a charm. Thanks for your help.