Looks like it's a web-based admin tool, so you'll have to point your web
browser to the correct IP address to use it. Can't say what that would be as
I've never used it, but must be in the documentation somewhere.

Sorry I can't be of more help.

Yea, its a web app to configure mysql. And yes, you use a specific ip:
localhost. As I said, I use it a lot. I know where the files are - what
Im asking is if someone HAS it installed on 8.04, can they verify the
location of the phpmyadmin login under /var/www.

the file is in /var/lib/ use a symbolic link to put a link in your
/var/www/ directory then you can get there by typing in the browser
localhost/phpmyadmin/ but I guess you know that. I also have a web
directory in my user directory for my apps and pages and use a symlink
to get there.

I didnt have a symlink to the file from my /var/www so I started doing
some checking, after reading a link posted to me in the php forums, it
turns out that a lot of people are having this problem after the upgrade
to 8.04. I found that very odd. So I uninstalled apache and
phpmysqladmin and then reinstalled them both - same thing. I created my
own links and it works but, its just odd that its not creating this link
automatically.

you may want to give XAMPP a try.

It installs nicely, and the docs are intuitive.

I currently use it under 8.04 Xubuntu and it works flawlessly.
http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp-linux.html

I understand why you might use the AMPP product on windows, a
development machine is hard to get working on it.

With the DEB files it is easy on Ubuntu. So Don't understand accepting
the limitations imposed with AMPP.

Symlinks are easy! /var/www/ is a root owned directory requiring super
user permission, that makes it safe, that is also why the SQL
administering program is not there and should be accessed via symlink.

I gave up Windows because of security issues, so I don't want to do
things that vary from conventions. I prefer development of Linux that
refuses to open holes to make it easer to use.

You have 3 options:
1. use lampp use the apache manual to secure apache and the other
servers you are installing so your install can't be hacked.

2. Use chown to change permissions of your ./www directory while you
insert the stuff you will be using then change back the permissions.

3. set-up a user folder and insert a symlink to your stuff into the
./www folder.

For the outside world looking in the symlink seems to me more secure,
I may be wrong but without a path to follow, changes would be tuff,
most likely why the developers make you do some of the work.

I am new to the Linux community(4 mos), and have gone to the
developers forums to understand how to make my system do what I
thought should be easy. I have noticed that when things are hard to
do, the developers made a security decision. With Windows the decision
is ease, and for Linux security. How many bugs do you have in your
house? Accept that a bug free house requires work, don't open your
system to issues that brought you here.

To make a symlink use ln -s (/from) (/to). Details can be found in
the Linux command manuals on line. You may need to change users to do
all of this, I know you will in the root directory.

If you want to be able to mess with your web files make the sym link
point to your user directory i.e. /user/username/webfiles/ Then you as
username can put your pages in without the terminal, a big plus!

You'll also need to ensure that the web server is indeed running.
(sorry if this is obvious, but I've done installs where the web server daemon
is switched off until I manually start it, which I prefer.. but I digress.)

Did a google, and found
"The port-number of your $i-th MySQL-server. Default is 3306 (leave
blank). If you use "localhost" as the hostname, MySQL
ignores this port number and connects with the socket, so if you want
to connect to a port different from the default port, use
"127.0.0.1" or the real hostname in
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['host'].
"

http://www.phpmyadmin.net/documentation/