XAMPP - Can't connect to database. Also, best dev setup?

Hello all,

I’m trying to get back into some basic web development, which will mostly include altering platforms with HTML, CSS, Javascript, and PHP/SQL (I’ll probably move on to other languages when I have those down). I’ve always developed in the past on Windows, and have been rather spoiled with WAMP. However, my goal is to start using Linux more, so I have setup Mate (shoutout to the Ubuntu podcast which brought me to this distro) in a virtualbox machine.

My usual routine is to develop in Notepad ++ or Dreamweaver, and run stuff on the local machine until I’m ready to transfer everything via FTP onto a server. On the Linux side of things, I have installed filezilla, atom, and XAMPP. I would appreciate any feedback on this setup, or my workflow in general.

Unfortunately, I’m having a problem with XAMPP. I’ve created my databases and users in PHPmyadmin, but every time I try to install a cms/cart, the installation program can’t connect to the database. Opencart, Oscommerce, Abantecart, they’re all failing to connect to the database. Aside from changing file/folder permissions in htdocs, I haven’t altered anything in XAMPP from the stock install. How do I fix this?

Thanks in advance!
Andrew