shell> /etc/init.d/mysql stop

shell> mysqld --user=mysql --pid-file=/var/lib/mysql/mysqld.pid
       --socket=/var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock --datadir=/var/lib/mysql
       --skip-grant-tables --skip-networking  &

shell> mysql --database mysql --socket=/var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock

mysql> select User, password from user;

mysql> update user set password=password('NEW PASS') WHERE User='USERNAME';

mysql> exit

shell> kill `cat /var/lib/mysql/mysqld.pid`
shell> /etc/init.d/mysql start

mysqladmin -u root password <password>