phpMyAdmin authentication error

On OS X 10.3 I installed the latest MySQL from dev.mysql.com for OS X 10.3. It was a Apple style installer package with a binary of the server and the client. The docs weren't exactly written for OS X but I survived the set up and am able to login as the root MySQL user with the command line MySQL client. From version tracker I got phpMyAdmin-2.6.2-pl1.tar.bz2 which is just a .tar of a bunch of files you drop into the web server path. But phpMyAdmin gives the error, "Client does not support authentication protocol requested by server; consider upgrading MySQL client." I don't see a way to change the auth protocol in the phpMyAdmin conf file: config.inc.php. If I create a MySQL user with no password phpMyAdmin works. Because the install was from mysql.com I don't want to believe the client is out of date. I also don't know how to install another client. Any one have any ideas? Thanks