Stopping MySql server on Linux (to try and reset root password)

Question

I was trying to stop mysql on Ubuntu to follow the steps explained here on how to reset the password: http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.5/en/resetting-permissions.html the problem is whenever I kill mysqld process, it gets spawned again.

Any idea how to force stopping it or figuring out what's starting it?

Answer 1

Do such command for older ubuntu, as said in http://www.codeunit.co.za/2010/07/07/how-to-start-or-stop-mysql-server-on-ubuntu-via-the-command-line/

sudo /etc/init.d/mysql stop

And for newest ubuntu, the upstart program manages mysqld running all time... use command as said here

sudo initctl stop mysql

or

sudo stop mysql 

Answer 2

The mysql process is probably started by some daemon control software which also automatically respawns it. Try using ps to determine its parent process, which will give you a hint how to stop it:

ps -fC mysqld

and look into the PPID column. If it's a 1, the process is owned directly by init and a simple kill should suffice to stop it. If not, use something like

ps -fp 1234

to display the process that sired the mysql process, it will probably be responsible for its respawn.

Answer 3

To install MySql database:

sudo apt-get install mysql-server

To start MySql server:

/etc/init.d/mysql start

To stop MySql server:

/etc/init.d/mysql stop

To restart MySql server:

/etc/init.d/mysql restart

To check the status of MySql server:

/etc/init.d/mysql status

Answer 4

The later versions of Ubuntu uses Upstart for its init system. Its been a while, but I think the syntax to stop a service would be something like:

stop servicename