phpMyAdmin is throwing a #2002 cannot log in to the mysql server phpmyadmin

Question

I have installed MySQL server enterprise 5.1 on my local machine and now I want to install phpMyAdmin, but it does not work.

I have unrared phpMyAdmin to my server root directory and browsed to "localhost/phpMyAdmin/setup/index.php", started a new server and the only setting I changed was filling in my MySQL password in the field "Password for config auth"

So now when I am trying to log in I get an error message saying "#2002 cannot log in to the mysql server phpmyadmin"

Does anyone know what's wrong? I've been having this problem since yesterday.

Answer 1

If you're getting the #2002 Cannot log in to the MySQL server error while logging in to phpmyadmin, try editing phpmyadmin/config.inc.php and change:

$cfg['Servers'][$i]['host'] = 'localhost';

to:

$cfg['Servers'][$i]['host'] = '127.0.0.1';

Solution from Ryan's blog

Edit (20-Mar-2015):

Note that if you're on a fresh install, config.inc.php may not exist. You need to rename / copy config.sample.inc.php and then change the relevant line

Answer 2

This is old but as it is the first result in Google,

Please note that this also happens when your MySql service is down,

I fixed this by simply restarting MySQL Server using:

/etc/init.d/mysql restart

in SSH (Command is for a CentOS/CPanel server)

Answer 3

Background: I am using Linux Mint 13. In my case, this error happened when I restarted the computer and my DHCP assigned a new local IP address (from 192.168.0.2 to 192.168.0.4) to my desktop.

sudo gedit /etc/mysql/my.cnf

Update

bind-address = 192.168.0.2

to

bind-address = localhost

This fixed the problem. Enjoy.