Trying to initialize insecure mysql after a fresh install on ubuntu WSL

I want to initialize insecure mysql, but even with a fresh install It does not work :

mysqld --initialize-insecure
mysqld: Can't create directory '/var/lib/mysql/' (OS errno 17 - File exists)
2023-05-22T17:35:25.059166Z 0 [System] [MY-013169] [Server] /usr/sbin/mysqld (mysqld 8.0.33-0ubuntu0.20.04.2) initializing of server in progress as process 8886
2023-05-22T17:35:25.059914Z 0 [ERROR] [MY-010187] [Server] Could not open file '/var/log/mysql/error.log' for error logging: Permission denied
2023-05-22T17:35:25.059949Z 0 [ERROR] [MY-013236] [Server] The designated data directory /var/lib/mysql/ is unusable. You can remove all files that the server added to it.
2023-05-22T17:35:25.059954Z 0 [ERROR] [MY-010119] [Server] Aborting
2023-05-22T17:35:25.060000Z 0 [System] [MY-010910] [Server] /usr/sbin/mysqld: Shutdown complete (mysqld 8.0.33-0ubuntu0.20.04.2)  (Ubuntu).

I tried setting the log to mysql:mysql with an empty /var/lib/mysql/ but it does not seems to work
What should I do to make an initialize insecure ?

EDIT :

Thanks to Zak, I can now run the command (I chmod the folder permission to my user instead of mysql)

[Warning] [MY-010453] [Server] root@localhost is created with an empty password ! Please consider switching off the --initialize-insecure option.

However :

mysql -u root
ERROR 1698 (28000): Access denied for user 'root'@'localhost'

From what I understand root should work here.

PS: This is for a dev station, it is not for production

Now that you are here and able to TRY to log in .. But root is empty so it will always fail .. You need to do the following steps to "secure" your setup.

I am only answering this OP, because it's a dev machine .. I would never recommend skipping grant on a production machine with sensitive data stored.

NOTE: I use vim in this example .. But you can use NANO or whatever editor you feel comfortable using. The point is to add skip-grant-tables to the end of the my.cnf file -- Which pretty much makes MySQL not need a login at all to function, thus allowing us to change the password for root. Then we remove the skip-grant-tables from my.cnf after we've changed the password and restart mysql to require valid credentials.

To find the location of your config file(s) you may run a mysqladmin --help -- This should give you something like:

$ mysqladmin --help
...
Default options are read from the following files in the given order:
/etc/my.cnf /etc/mysql/my.cnf ~/.my.cnf
...

If you open the file and see something like:

 !includedir /etc/mysql/conf.d/
 !includedir /etc/mysql/mysql.conf.d/

Those are the locations of your actual configuration fiile. It is just including all the files in those directories.. Just choose the last file and put the skip grants at the end of that file.

You can now get started.

$ sudo su
$ vi /etc/my.cnf

Add skip-grant-tables To the end of the file. Save and exit.

$ service mysql restart
$ service mysql status
mysql.service - MySQL Community Server
    Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/mysql.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
    Active: active (running) since Fri 2022-08-12 18:45:46 CDT; 9 months 8 days ago
    Main PID: 970 (mysqld)
    Status: "Server is operational"
    Tasks: 45 (limit: 19110)
    Memory: 878.3M
    CGroup: /system.slice/mysql.service
         └─970 /usr/sbin/mysqld

$ mysql
Login Message
mysql> use mysql;
mysql> UPDATE user SET `authentication_string` = PASSWORD('ABC123') WHERE `User` = 'root'; 
mysql> exit
Bye
$ vi /etc/my.cnf

Erase line --> skip-grant-tables Save and exit.

$ service mysqld restart
$ service mysql status
mysql.service - MySQL Community Server
    Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/mysql.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
    Active: active (running) since Fri 2022-08-12 18:45:46 CDT; 9 months 8 days ago
    Main PID: 970 (mysqld)
    Status: "Server is operational"
    Tasks: 45 (limit: 19110)
    Memory: 878.3M
    CGroup: /system.slice/mysql.service
         └─970 /usr/sbin/mysqld
$ exit
$ mysql -u root -p