Hi all, This was probably already discussed. I did a fresh 20.04 and MariaDB 10.5.8 install and now I'm having a question related to the new authentication concept starting from 10.4. As stated at Authentication from MariaDB 10.4 and Authentication in MariaDB 10.4 — Understanding the Changes there are two administrative accounts created: root and mysql. As I understand using both account sockets. Logging as normal user as root into mariadb using unix_sockets is no problem: testusr@host:~$ sudo mariadb -u root Welcome to the MariaDB monitor. Commands end with ; or \g. Your MariaDB connection id is 38 Server version: 10.5.8-MariaDB-1:10.5.8+maria~focal mariadb.org binary distribution Copyright (c) 2000, 2018, Oracle, MariaDB Corporation Ab and others. Type 'help;' or '\h' for help. Type '\c' to clear the current input statement. MariaDB [(none)]> Ctrl-C -- exit! Aborted Doing the same with as mysql testusr@host:~$ sudo mariadb -u mysql returns ERROR 1698 (28000): Access denied for user 'mysql'@'localhost'. If someone can point me to a source detailing me what I may not have understood - any help is appreciated. --- Best Alex