Jon's Tech-Talk
Fix Joomla Install Error 'Cannot Connect to MYSQL Database'
(Posted 9/22/2010) - Most of us forget to first create a database (name) and to setup a user-name and password for full access to our Joomla CMS via PHPmyadmin before we get to the Joomla Install point that declares the database name, user-name, and password.
Using PHPmyadmin go to home->priviledges and click on the edit-icon at the end of the rows for localhost and for local-IP. Set the Change Password radio button to password, and enter the access password you will use. Note the user-name in the change login box just below is defaulted to root. If left unchanged that means you must use the same name during the Joomla install.
If for any reason after you've updated mySQL from no-password (unsafe default) to password protected you find you are locked out of PHPmyadmin, just use the cmd line interface to MYSQl and enter your user and password that way to gain access again.
Saw a lot of folks having problems with the Joomla install because of this issue and thought this might help. Joomla is a framework and allows experienced users to generate lots of functionality quickly -- but us newbies have to climb the mountain and it does take a few weeks to get above the clouds (of confusion).
Enjoy!