Forgetting passwords isn’t generally a good idea. It does happen, though, and if it happens to your MySQL server, this is the process you need to follow in order to recover it.

First of all, you need to stop the running MySQL server. You need to be root on your system, then:

# /etc/init.d/mysql stop

Now, we need to make a text file called an init file. The contents of this file will be executed in a moment when we restart the MySQL server in a special way. So, create a new text file in your home folder and place this in the file:

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

Obviously, substitute in your desired password (leaving the quotes intact). Save the file as passwordinit.

Now, we need to start the MySQL server with this init file. Still as root on the system, run:

# mysqld_safe --init-file=~/passwordinit &

As soon as you press Enter, the password has been changed. Now I recommend restarting the MySQL server in the normal way, as follows:

# /etc/init.d/mysql restart

And that’s it. Be more careful next time.

Sun Microsystems CEO Jonathan Schwartz has announced on his blog that Sun are acquiring MySQL AB, the parent company and commercial arm of popular relational database system MySQL.

… we’re putting a billion dollars behind the M in LAMP. If you’re an industry insider, you’ll know what that means - we’re acquiring MySQL AB, the company behind MySQL, the world’s most popular open source database… So what are we announcing today? That in addition to acquiring MySQL, Sun will be unveiling new global support offerings into the MySQL marketplace. We’ll be investing in both the community, and the marketplace - to accelerate the industry’s phase change away from proprietary technology to the new world of open web platforms.

This is a very important development and definitely proves what we already know - that the MySQL database system is a critical part of the modern web. Sun clearly recognise that and it is encouraging that they are putting serious resources behind it.

Read the rest of Sun buy MySQL AB

This is the first ever FOSSwire post with video! Be sure to click Watch Video in the metabar above, or click here to view the video accompanying this post.

VLEs are all the rage in education right now. A VLE is supposedly a ‘virtual learning environment’, a software system designed to take teaching online and offer services like being able to download assignments, track progress and so forth.

Most VLE systems are web-based, and one such open source web-based VLE is Moodle. It is written in PHP and supports many different database types (although the most popular are MySQL and PostgreSQL). This means it’s perfect for running on your LAMP server, or of course it should run fine anywhere where PHP and a supported database solution do.

After installation (which you can see in the accompanying video for this post) and briefly setting up your Moodle installation, you can begin setting up courses and using the main features of Moodle.

While I haven’t delved very deeply into all of the features of this open source VLE system, it seems very comprehensive and easy to use and is a formidable competitor to rivalling VLE systems.