i logged into my mysql database as the root user and issued the following commands:
UPDATE mysql.user SET Password = OLD_PASSWORD('my_chosen_password') WHERE Host = 'localhost' AND User = 'root'; FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
i then stopped the server and started it again with the following parameters: /usr/local/mysql/bin/mysqld --basedir=/usr/local/mysql --datadir=/usr/local/mysql/data --user=mysql --pid-file=/usr/local/mysql/data/opinion.pid --skip-locking --old-password
i then pressed the retry button in the ez installation wizard... and i got the same error message again.