I have installed mysql and run the mysql_install_db script. When I try to change the root password I get the following error:

es01 /opt/bugzilla/mysql$./bin/mysqladmin -u root password s1t8d3l0
./bin/mysqladmin: connect to server at 'localhost' failed
error: 'Access denied for user: 'root@localhost' (Using password: NO)'
es01 /opt/bugzilla/mysql$

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Gim

Problem is in wrong syntax.
Correct syntax is following:
mysqladmin -u root -p s1t8d3l0