I get the following error:
Client does not support authentication protocol requested by server; consider upgrading MySQL client
I know I can solve it with:
SET PASSWORD FOR user@localhost = OLD_PASSWORD('password');
But I want to know if there is another way to do it by using a different PHP mysql extension or something?
One option is to use OLD_PASSWORD
as you've suggested, another option is to upgrade the MySQL client library and the PHP MySQL bindings. I don't know of any other option: there is no alternative library.