Ver 4.1.12, RedHat 9, ERROR 1045 (28000), root login fails

[Lars Cedar]

Hello,

I'm installing Bugzilla on my Redhat 9 system. My Perl setup is failing on DBI install and attempts to login to mysql as root from the command line generate the following error:

[root@10 bugzilla-2.18.3]# mysql -u root
ERROR 1045 (28000): Access denied for user 'root'@'localhost' (using password: NO)

I set up a "test' database while intalling perl modules. Despite an attempt to set up with a user of root and no password, I still get the above error. Here's the module installation command I use:

/opt/ActivePerl-5.8/bin/perl-static -MCPAN -e 'install "Template"'

This test also fails because of root login failure:

/opt/ActivePerl-5.8/bin/perl-static -MCPAN -e 'install "DBD::mysql"'

MySQL version: (mysql -V)
mysql Ver 14.7 Distrib 4.1.12, for pc-linux-gnu (i686) using readline 4.3

I created aliases in /usr/local for mysql and mysqld, pointing to:

/usr/local/mysql-standard-4.1.12-pc-linux-gnu-i686/bin/mysqld

I've been searching for a solution, but nothing has come up yet. I'd appreciate some guidance to what I'm sure is a simple problem.

Oh, I ran the "Template" install creating a different user and password and I was able to log in. It is only for root that I can't set up the login.

Permissions? How, where? Did I do the symlink correctly in this case?

Thanks,
Lars

perl: v5.8.7 built for i686-linux-thread-multi
Redhat: uname -a
Linux 10.1.1.1 2.4.20-20.9 #1 Mon Aug 18 11:45:58 EDT 2003 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux