So I followed TechnoDad's installation video and this is where i'm at now.
the only thing i'm not sure about is the port number. i used the one in the video which is 3306, not referenced anywhere during the install. I wrote down everything as i went, so i know my username and password are not the problem for linking the database. I even went back and created a new username and password in mariadb and still have the same result.
I'm at a bit of a loss here so any help would be appreciated.
thanks everyone.