Error in setting root password upon installation

I've installed (and reinstalled) MySQL 4.1.8 from a binary tarball on
RedHat 8. I'm logged in as root and I've run mysql_install_db both
as is and with --user=mysql. All the file ownership permissions are
correctly set. I've started the server using mysqld_safe both as is
and with -user=mysql. The server seems to be running fine (though I
don't seem to see the mysql database as the tutorial indicates ...)

Anyway, I'm trying to set the root passwords using:
mysqladmin -u root password foobar
mysqladmin -u root -h localhost password foobar

and I keep getting the error messages:
connect to server at 'localhost' failed
error: 'Access denied for user 'root'@'localhost' (using password: NO)'

I've searched the forums and found mentions of similar problems but no
explanations of what might be set wrong. I'd appreciate any advice
here.

Thanks,