MySQL Forums :: MySQL Administrator :: Problems Logging in

MySQL 5.0.26 from SLES 11 RPM. This use to work. The mysql.log is blank so no help there. I have set a password using:

SET PASSWORD FOR 'root'@'localhost' = PASSWORD('secret_password');

Then when trying to login i would get:

mysql -u root -p
ERROR 1045 (28000): Access denied for user 'root'@'localhost' (using password: NO)]/code]

And i could login without a password. So i used the mysql-init file to set a password and this seems to work. The problem ccomes as i try to login from phpmyadmin, it keeps prompting for the user/pass, which i use the same when i login from mysql console. It does not appear to be a grant/connect problem as i have run:
SHOW GRANTS FOR CURRENT_USER;
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Grants for root@localhost                                                                                                              |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON *.* TO 'root'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY PASSWORD 'some_encrypted_text' WITH GRANT OPTION |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)



What can be going on here and how would i find out what mysql is seeing/doing since the log is blank?