Setting root password in fresh mysql 5.7 installation

I am trying to install mysql in a serving having CentOS Linux release 7.2.1511. Take a look to the process installation:

# sudo yum install mysql-server

Output:

Dependencies Resolved

===========================================================================================================================================================================================================
 Package                                                 Arch                                    Version                                         Repository                                           Size
===========================================================================================================================================================================================================
Removing:
 mysql-community-client                                  x86_64                                  5.7.10-1.el7                                    @mysql57-community                                  109 M
 mysql-community-server                                  x86_64                                  5.7.10-1.el7                                    @mysql57-community                                  652 M

Transaction Summary
===========================================================================================================================================================================================================

I ran the mysql damon:

# sudo service mysqld start

Checking the service:

# ps -ef|grep mysql
mysql     1371     1  0 22:17 ?        00:00:00 /usr/sbin/mysqld --daemonize --pid-file=/var/run/mysqld/mysqld.pid

Here comes the problem driving me crazy. I want to set root password for the very first time, so I did:

# sudo mysql_secure_installation
// when password is required, I just type "enter key"

But the output: Securing the MySQL server deployment.


Enter password for user root: Error: Access denied for

If you just run mysql command under root user you will be granted access without asked for password, because socket authentication enabled for root@localhost.

This guide is misleading.

The only way to set password is to switch to native authentication like:

ALTER USER 'root'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED WITH mysql_native_password BY 'test';

StackExchange Database Administrators Q#127537, answer score: 23