Try pressing your <Enter> key and see if that gets you back to a prompt. If it does, then do: ps waux | grep mysqld to see if it's running.
Actually, it is running. I see the PID associated with it. ************************************************************ [r...@santiago ~]# ps waux | grep mysql root 4431 0.0 0.0 52752 1148 pts/0 S 10:24 0:00 /bin/sh /usr/bin/mysqld_safe --skip-grant-tables mysql 4462 0.0 0.5 150416 23784 pts/0 Sl 10:24 0:00 /usr/libexec/mysqld --basedir=/usr --datadir=/var/lib/mysql --user=mysql --pid-file=/var/run/mysqld/mysqld.pid --skip-locking --socket=/var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock --skip-grant-tables root 4473 0.0 0.0 51072 672 pts/0 S+ 10:25 0:00 grep mysql ************************************************************ http://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/recover-mysql-root-password.html I go through all the rest of the above steps ok, but on the final step, I get: ************************************************************ [r...@santiago ~]# mysql -u root -p Enter password: (HERE I ENTER IN A PASSWORD) ERROR 1045 (28000): Access denied for user 'root'@'localhost' (using password: YES) [r...@santiago ~]# ************************************************************
