If I could set the password for debian-sys-maint, then I could install the phpmyadmin package, and that would be great! But with mySQL 5.7 and some random local configuration, it is somehow Not So Easy to set passwords, because it's not obvious which authentication module I should talk to. I've tried:
mysql> alter user 'debian-sys-maint'@'localhost' identified with mysql_native_password as 'MyNewPass'; ERROR 1396 (HY000): Operation ALTER USER failed for 'debian-sys-maint'@'localhost' mysql> alter user 'debian-sys-maint'@'localhost' identified with mysql_native_password as 'MyNewPass'; ERROR 1396 (HY000): Operation ALTER USER failed for 'debian-sys-maint'@'localhost' mysql> flush privileges; Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.01 sec) mysql> show plugins -> ;+----------------------------+----------+--------------------+---------+---------+ | Name | Status | Type | Library | License |+----------------------------+----------+--------------------+---------+---------+ | binlog | ACTIVE | STORAGE ENGINE | NULL | GPL | | mysql_native_password | ACTIVE | AUTHENTICATION | NULL | GPL | | sha256_password | ACTIVE | AUTHENTICATION | NULL | GPL | ... | MEMORY | ACTIVE | STORAGE ENGINE | NULL | GPL | | InnoDB | ACTIVE | STORAGE ENGINE | NULL | GPL |+----------------------------+----------+--------------------+---------+---------+ 44 rows in set (0.00 sec) $ apt-show-versions | grep -i mysql dbconfig-mysql:all/xenial 2.0.4ubuntu1 uptodate libmysqlclient-dev:amd64/xenial-security 5.7.17-0ubuntu0.16.04.1 upgradeable to 5.7.18-0ubuntu0.16.04.1 libmysqlclient-dev:i386 not installed libmysqlclient20:amd64/xenial-security 5.7.17-0ubuntu0.16.04.1 upgradeable to 5.7.18-0ubuntu0.16.04.1 libmysqlclient20:i386 not installed mysql-client:all/xenial-security 5.7.17-0ubuntu0.16.04.1 upgradeable to 5.7.18-0ubuntu0.16.04.1 mysql-client-5.7:amd64/xenial-security 5.7.18-0ubuntu0.16.04.1 uptodate mysql-client-5.7:i386 not installed mysql-client-core-5.7:amd64/xenial-security 5.7.18-0ubuntu0.16.04.1 uptodate mysql-client-core-5.7:i386 not installed mysql-common:all/xenial-security 5.7.18-0ubuntu0.16.04.1 uptodate mysql-server:all/xenial-security 5.7.18-0ubuntu0.16.04.1 uptodate mysql-server-5.7:amd64/xenial-security 5.7.18-0ubuntu0.16.04.1 uptodate mysql-server-5.7:i386 not installed mysql-server-core-5.7:amd64/xenial-security 5.7.18-0ubuntu0.16.04.1 uptodate mysql-server-core-5.7:i386 not installed php-mysql:all/xenial 1:7.0+35ubuntu6 uptodate php7.0-mysql:amd64/xenial-security 7.0.15-0ubuntu0.16.04.4 uptodate php7.0-mysql:i386 not installedHow can I set the password?