I always seem to get in a tangle with installing and setting up mySql.
The essential problem seems to be that mySql wants to refer to the local machine as 'localhost', and 127.0.0.1, and 'chris'. Thus when I try and add a user it seems that the user gets added with privileges for one (or some) but not all of 'localhost', and 127.0.0.1, and 'chris' and then doesn't work because I need to acces the database as one of the other host names.
Adding a user as 'user'@* seems to be even worse and doesn't work at all.
I also seem to be having trouble changing the password for the mySql super user, I tried doing it via phpmyadmin and that seems to have done nothing, I can't quite fathom the syntax for doing it in mySql from the command line in the mysql front-end.
I *do* know SQL fairly well and usually once I have the password/host chaos sorted out mysql works well for me but this part of it really stinks IMHO when you're working on localhost (or is it 127.0.0.1 or is it chris?). It's fine when working remotely, there's only one possible name for the place where the database is.