how to change mysql configuration of master and slave

Question

I need to adjust the innodb_buffer_pool_size of my master and slave mysql database servers, both are running on independent boxes. On the slave if I issue "stop slave" i'm still not able to /etc/init.d/mysql stop to make the my.cnf change (Debian Lenny).

/etc/init.d/mysql stop 
Stopping MySQL database server: mysqld failed!

and

/etc/init.d/mysql reload

Reloading MySQL database server: mysqld/usr/bin/mysqladmin: connect to server at 'localhost' failed
error: 'Access denied for user 'debian-sys-maint'@'localhost' (using password: YES)'

How can you properly lock the replication state to make the changes on both then bring them back up? Do I need to reset slave then tell it the master's log position again?

Answer 1

looks like the problem is that whatever account you're managing the mysql server from (debian-sys-maint) does not have superuser rights in mysql. log in to the mysql server as root or another user with superuser rights and add superuser to debian-sys-maint.