install mysql user authentication fail

I'm trying the mkzenossinstance.sh from the Zenoss core svn which nearly installs. :)

I got an ~/.my.cnf file with username=root password for the mysql database so that the script passes the "root" mysql login part, but soon after user "zenoss" is dynamically created and I get this error

Running zenbuild: ...
ERROR 1045 (28000): Access denied for user 'zenoss'@'localhost' (using password: YES)
ERROR:zen.zendb:Error executing command: ['mysql', '--batch', '--skip-column-names', '--user=zenoss', '--host=localhost', '--port=3306', '--database=zodb']

gzip: stdout: Broken pipe
There was a problem creating the database from the sql dump.
[FAIL]
mkzenossinstance.sh: rc=111
--

I filed this bugreport but meanwhile I'm wondering if there's something I can do as I'm not sure if it'll be looked into (I'm actually using Debian).. Everything compiles, but it's this last script that fails with a benign user/password mismatch for the script to complete,.. I suppose there might be another avenue around this.

thanks