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

[Frank Zillner]

I'm trying to upgrade to 5.0.7 on a SUSE 9 box, but when trying to perform the post-install items such as /usr/bin/mysqladmin -u root password <password> or just run a mysqladmin command (i.e. status) or plain old mysql, I get the following "error: 'Access denied for user 'root'@'localhost' (using password: NO)'". The prior version was 4.0.15, used rpm to install.

Tried:
shell> mysql -u root

shell> mysqladmin -u root password <new password>

skip-grant-tables


Didn't perform the original install, so if there was a root password already set I haven't a clue. (everyone's probably thinking - Yeah right!). Haven't used MySQL since it didn't have views (I grew up on an Oracle farm). Now we're trying to perform a serious evaluation using MySQL 5. Just having issues upgrading.

Don't really want to perform a fresh install. Can anyone help?

Thanks!