In the new version of MySQL (or MariaDB) user 'root' can not connect to the database server through PhpMyAdmin. To solve this problem perform the following actions.
``.shell
[root@kvmde54-19861 ~]# mysql -V
mysql Ver 15.1 Distrib 5.5.60-MariaDB, for Linux (x86_64) using readline 5.1
Connect to the database server as root user in the terminal and use 'mysql' database:
``.shell
mysql -u root -p mysql
Change the 'plugin' value for the 'root' user in the 'users' table:
``.shell
MariaDB [mysql]> update user set
plugin='' where user='root'
Set privileges:
``.shell
MariaDB [mysql]>
flush privileges
If you want to go back to disabling root access from anything other than the shell, you can follow the same steps, but in the second step change the value of "plugin" to "unix_socket".
``.shell
update user set
plugin='unix_socket' where user='root'
```
