I am using MySql Connector 6.8.3 (the latest).
I am using Visual Studio 2012 so this is not the known issue in Visual Studio 2013 as this SO solution provides: Unable to convert runtime connection string to its design-time equivalent
I am using this connection string:
<add name="db_uTextEntities" connectionString="metadata=res://*/uTextModel.csdl|res://*/uTextModel.ssdl|res://*/uTextModel.msl;provider=MySql.Data.MySqlClient;provider connection string="server=localhost;user id=username;password=password;database=db_uText_v1"" providerName="System.Data.EntityClient" />