Change 'root' Password forMySQL but Change Lost after Reboot One of my people was asked to install a standalone MySQL on his laptop. After doing this with the Synaptic Package Manager he was unable to login to MySQL. He then claimed he was not offered the option to set a root password during the install (not sure whether to believe this).

After I reset the password everything worked fine until he rebooted. It then seemed to reverted to the original(unknown) password or something else. I have been through this loop three times and cannot understand why this is. After resetting the password I have executed 'flush privileges;' before stopping and starting the server. Everything then works fine until it is rebooted! I am at a loss what to try next bar a complete reinstall...

The laptop is running Mint 17.3 64-bit.
There appeared to be no way out of this! Eventually after backing up Mint 17.3 was re-installed and MySQL added. MySQL did ask for a password to be set and everything has worked fine since. I doubt the reason for the problem will ever be known!