How to restore the debian-sys-maint MySQL user

Posted November 18th, 2011 in MySql

My last post looked at how to fix ERROR 1045 (28000): Access denied for user 'debian-sys-maint'@'localhost' on MySQL and this article shows how to restore the debian-sys-maint user if you've accidentally deleted it. I accidentally deleted the user myself when I reset a MySQL database using the /usr/bin/mysql_install_db script.

The SQL Query

Log into MySQL as the root user and run the following SQL query, substituting PASSWORD-HERE for the actual plain text password which is the same as the password in the /etc/mysql/debian.conf file:

INSERT INTO `user` (
	`Host`,
	`User`,
	`Password`,
	`Select_priv`,
	`Insert_priv`,
	`Update_priv`,
	`Delete_priv`,
	`Create_priv`,
	`Drop_priv`,
	`Reload_priv`,
	`Shutdown_priv`,
	`Process_priv`,
	`File_priv`,
	`Grant_priv`,
	`References_priv`,
	`Index_priv`,
	`Alter_priv`,
	`Show_db_priv`,
	`Super_priv`,
	`Create_tmp_table_priv`,
	`Lock_tables_priv`,
	`Execute_priv`,
	`Repl_slave_priv`,
	`Repl_client_priv`,
	`Create_view_priv`,
	`Show_view_priv`,
	`Create_routine_priv`,
	`Alter_routine_priv`,
	`Create_user_priv`,
	`ssl_type`,
	`ssl_cipher`,
	`x509_issuer`,
	`x509_subject`,
	`max_questions`,
	`max_updates`,
	`max_connections`,
	`max_user_connections`
)
VALUES (
	'localhost',
	'debian-sys-maint',
	password('PASSWORD-HERE'),
	'Y',
	'Y',
	'Y',
	'Y',
	'Y',
	'Y',
	'Y',
	'Y',
	'Y',
	'Y',
	'Y',
	'Y',
	'Y',
	'Y',
	'Y',
	'Y',
	'Y',
	'Y',
	'Y',
	'Y',
	'Y',
	'N',
	'N',
	'N',
	'N',
	'N',
	'',
	'',
	'',
	'',
	0,
	0,
	0,
	0
);
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

 And that's all there is to it.