Access denied for user 'root'@'localhost'

Hi,

I'm getting the above error when using Adminer to access my MariaDB database, created by installing mysql-server and mysql-client.

I know for a fact that the password is correct.

At the beginning, I had the default root@localhost. I set its host to % instead. I then set authentication_string = PASSWORD('pw') and plugin = 'mysql_native_password'. I then flushed privileges.

I also set bind-address to 0.0.0.0.

Then I tried creating another user, root@localhost because that's what Adminer is complaining about. I gave it all privileges and set its password to the same as root@%. Now I can't access the mysql console whatsoever because it's now saying 'Access denied for user 'root'@'localhost' (using password: YES)' in the console.

This issue is pathetic and has already wasted a whole day. Could you please shed some light on it? I've done the exact same as above countless times before and it's worked fine.