Phpmyadmin doesn't show "privileges" tab

If you are sure that you are running as root, try clearing your cookies then refresh. This, AFAIK, is a bug affecting Google Chrome in particular but I can't say for certain for other browsers. Note that you can select what cookies to delete via the developers tab in Chrome. You need to delete only the localhost cookies.

Edit:

Oh no. So you've really deleted the 'user' table. My suggestion is that you either find CREATE scripts for the tables in database mysql or do a complete reinstall (as it appears, you don't have much DB's to lose anyway). Just for the record:

mysql> USE mysql;
Database changed
mysql> SHOW TABLES;
+---------------------------+
| Tables_in_mysql           |
+---------------------------+
| columns_priv              |
| db                        |
| event                     |
| func                      |
| general_log               |
| help_category             |
| help_keyword              |
| help_relation             |
| help_topic                |
| host                      |
| ndb_binlog_index          |
| plugin                    |
| proc                      |
| procs_priv                |
| proxies_priv              |
| servers                   |
| slow_log                  |
| tables_priv               |
| time_zone                 |
| time_zone_leap_second     |
| time_zone_name            |
| time_zone_transition      |
| time_zone_transition_type |
| user                      |
+---------------------------+
24 rows in set (0.00 sec)

For people who run into this problem while using cPanel / WHM the post linked to below on the cPanel site states:

Per internal case number 37402, the functionality to add/delete/rename users and databases through phpMyAdmin has been removed because of the database mapping feature.

That means the Users / Privileges tab has been removed from cPanel's version of phpMyAdmin and it doesn't sound like it's coming back. The post is from December of 2013.

http://forums.cpanel.net/f354/phpmyadmin-users-tab-gone-367661.html

The cPanel staff member cPanelMichael who answered the post recommended two alternatives.

1. Use "Home > SQL Services > Database Map Tool." This appears to be missing major functionality provided by phpMyAdmin.
2. Install your own standalone version of phpMyAdmin and use that instead of the cPanel version.

You gotta love progress.

I solved the problem like this:

1) I set a root password through SQL query like this:

• On a main page you should see the current root user - usually root@localhost
• So query for password change:
  SET PASSWORD FOR 'root'@'localhost' = PASSWORD('YOURPASSWORDHERE');

2) Search for config.inc.php in your wamp/xampp folder and change auth_type:

• you may find more of those configs, however the one you need is the one that contains line:
  $cfg['Servers'][$i]['auth_type'] = 'SOMETHING'; - change 'SOMETHING' to 'cookie'
  So you get: $cfg['Servers'][$i]['auth_type'] = 'cookie'; (or http if you wish) -

3) clear/delete all browser cookies for your server (usually look for localhost or 127.0.0.1 cookies)

4) Go to phpyadmin's webpage again - now you will be prompted with login box (html or http - depends on whether you set the cookie or http)

5) LOGIN - AND YOU'RE DONE ! :) Suddenly 'Privileges'/'Users' tab is shown, the exit button appears suddenly too ! :) (next to the "little house"-left-top)

PS: config.inc.php contains more interesting settings :)