1. Stop/ kill the mysqld
# service mysql stop #pkill -9 mysqld
2) Start the mysql in safe mode as follows
# mysqld --skip-grant-tables --user=root &
3) Now update the mysql user tables and root password as follows
#mysql mysql>use mysql; mysql>UPDATE user SET Password=PASSWORD('YOUR_PASSWORD') WHERE Host='localhost' AND User='root'; mysql>flush privileges;
Now add the new password “YOUR_PASSWORD” in /root/.my.cnf and start mysql
# service mysql start