Comment 2 for bug 388703

I did figure this out after I submitted the bug. I believe that it is still a valid bug, however. Since Ubuntu ships a default MySQL configuration with a blank root password, the default phpMyAdmin configuration should be modified to allow it to work out of the box on Ubuntu, even if this isn't the default upstream. There's only so much a distribution can do to ensure security in the face of a negligent user/administrator. It is not the place of phpMyAdmin (client) to control the security of a completely separate (server) application.