I have seen similar type issues depending on how you are logging in to the database with the root user. The user root@localhost should have complete access but I have sometimes seen that users logged on remotely have a reduced permission set.
To test with which user you are logged in with try:
select current_user();
if this returns root@localhost then you should have full permissions, if you have root@% then you may have a reduced set of permissions.
If you look in the table mysql.user you will see each user defined, the host access and the various permissions. If you issue an UPDATE statement you can change the permissions. Be sure to issue a FLUSH PRIVILEGES afterwards to make sure that these are flushed to the server.
Ronan Cashell
Senior Oracle/MySQL Administrator
IT Integrated Business Solutions
http://www.it-iss.com