PhpMyAdmin with MariaDB on Stretch

In Debian 9 MariaDB is using the UNIX auth_socket plugin by default. This basically means that database users will be “auth” by the system user credentials.

# sudo mysql -u root # I had to use "sudo" since is new installation

mysql> USE mysql;
mysql> UPDATE user SET plugin='mysql_native_password' WHERE User='root';
mysql> FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
mysql> exit;

# service mysql restart
Dont forget to set a root password
# mysql_secure_installation