How can I login as root for mysql8?

I'm on centos7, mysql8

Mysocial engine complaining that it can't login to the mysql database using the root login

I'm trying to login
# mysql -u root -p
Enter password:
ERROR 1045 (28000): Access denied for user 'root'@'localhost' (using password: YES)


I of course went through the mysql8 documentation https://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/8.0/en/changing-mysql-user.html

I also asked this question before but I tried the steps and it didn't work, I think it fails upon restarting my machine... how do I get a permanent solution to this?
https://www.tecmint.com/reset-root-password-in-mysql-8/ is what helped me last time.. but it is not working