Help needed: sudo apt-get install password issue

Hello all. I'm having some issues with a sudo apt-get install of mysql server.

All of the guides I can find online seem to suggest that installing it through apt-get will automatically provide a prompt to create a password for the root user, but that equally you can ignore the prompt and proceed without a password.

Well I seem to be caught in a rather awkward bind between these two possibilities: I was never prompted to create a password, but when I try to access mysql I am required to enter a password that, of course, I do not have.

Any help would be great.