Wordpress install: Created User doesn't work (but root mysql user does) - help with wp_config?

Hi, I’ve followed this tutorial https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-install-wordpress-with-lamp-on-ubuntu-18-04

• it all works except for the database connection: Error establishing a database connection

I’ve narrowed down to user problem because I can connect with root (just to test) but none of the other others users work.

part 1: db

CREATE DATABASE nicedb DEFAULT CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci; CREATE USER ‘mrnice’@‘localhost’ IDENTIFIED BY ‘nicepass’; GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON nicedb.* TO ‘mrnice’@‘localhost’; FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

part 2: wp_config

define(‘DB_NAME’, ‘nicedb’); /** MySQL database username / define(‘DB_USER’, ‘mrnice’); /* MySQL database password */ define(‘DB_PASSWORD’, ‘nicepass’);

the above result gets Error establishing a database connection

when I use mysqlshow -u mrnice -p, it works with my password. Only root@rootpass works and gets me to the next page to configure the rest. How do I correctly configure a user for my wordpress db?

This is on Unbuntu 19.04, mysql Ver 8.0.17-0ubuntu2 and latest stable wordpress release.

Thank you!