ERROR 1064 42000 You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MariaDB server version for the right syntax to use near mysql_install_db --user=root at line 1

This error is occurring because you are trying to execute a command in the MariaDB shell that is not valid SQL syntax.

The command 'mysql_install_db --user=root' is a command-line command that is used to initialize the MySQL/MariaDB data directory and create the system tables needed by the database.

To execute this command, you should exit the MariaDB shell and run it from the command-line interface (CLI) of your operating system.

For example, if you are using Linux, you can execute the command by opening a terminal and typing:

sudo mysql_install_db --user=root

This will initialize the data directory and create the system tables for MariaDB.

After that, you can start the MariaDB server and connect to it using the command:

sudo systemctl start mariadb
mysql -u root -p

This will start the MariaDB server and open the MariaDB shell, where you can interact with the database using valid SQL syntax