default character set MySQL

# The MySQL database server configuration file.
#
# You can copy this to one of:
# - "/etc/mysql/my.cnf" to set global options,
# - "~/.my.cnf" to set user-specific options.
# 
# One can use all long options that the program supports.
# Run program with --help to get a list of available options and with
# --print-defaults to see which it would actually understand and use.
#
# For explanations see
# http://dev.mysql.com/doc/mysql/en/server-system-variables.html

# This will be passed to all mysql clients
# It has been reported that passwords should be enclosed with ticks/quotes
# escpecially if they contain "#" chars...
# Remember to edit /etc/mysql/debian.cnf when changing the socket location.
[client]
port		= 3306
socket		= /var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock
default-character-set=utf8
character-sets-dir=/usr/share/mysql/charsets


# Here is entries for some specific programs
# The following values assume you have at least 32M ram

# This was formally known as [safe_mysqld]. Both versions are currently parsed.
[mysqld_safe]
socket		= /var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock
nice		= 0

[mysqld]
#
# * Basic Settings
#
user		= mysql
pid-file	= /var/run/mysqld/mysqld.pid
socket		= /var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock
port		= 3306
basedir		= /usr
datadir		= /var/lib/mysql
tmpdir		= /tmp
lc-messages-dir	= /usr/share/mysql
skip-external-locking
#collation-server = utf8_unicode_ci
init-connect='SET NAMES utf8'
character-set-server = utf8

collation-server=utf8_general_ci
init_connect='SET collation_connection = utf8_general_ci'
skip-character-set-client-handshake

#
# Instead of skip-networking the default is now to listen only on
# localhost which is more compatible and is not less secure.
#
# * Fine Tuning
#
key_buffer		= 16M
max_allowed_packet	= 16M
thread_stack		= 192K
thread_cache_size       = 8
# This replaces the startup script and checks MyISAM tables if needed
# the first time they are touched
myisam-recover         = BACKUP
#max_connections        = 100
#table_cache            = 64
#thread_concurrency     = 10
#
# * Query Cache Configuration
#
query_cache_limit	= 1M
query_cache_size        = 16M
#
# * Logging and Replication
#
# Both location gets rotated by the cronjob.
# Be aware that this log type is a performance killer.
# As of 5.1 you can enable the log at runtime!
#general_log_file        = /var/log/mysql/mysql.log
#general_log             = 1
#
# Error logging goes to syslog due to /etc/mysql/conf.d/mysqld_safe_syslog.cnf.
#
# Here you can see queries with especially long duration
#log_slow_queries	= /var/log/mysql/mysql-slow.log
#long_query_time = 2
#log-queries-not-using-indexes
#
# The following can be used as easy to replay backup logs or for replication.
# note: if you are setting up a replication slave, see README.Debian about
#       other settings you may need to change.
#server-id		= 1
#log_bin			= /var/log/mysql/mysql-bin.log
expire_logs_days	= 10
max_binlog_size         = 100M
#binlog_do_db		= include_database_name
#binlog_ignore_db	= include_database_name
#
# * InnoDB
#
# InnoDB is enabled by default with a 10MB datafile in /var/lib/mysql/.
# Read the manual for more InnoDB related options. There are many!
#
# * Security Features
#
# Read the manual, too, if you want chroot!
# chroot = /var/lib/mysql/
#
# For generating SSL certificates I recommend the OpenSSL GUI "tinyca".
#
# ssl-ca=/etc/mysql/cacert.pem
# ssl-cert=/etc/mysql/server-cert.pem
# ssl-key=/etc/mysql/server-key.pem



[mysqldump]
quick
quote-names
max_allowed_packet	= 16M
default-character-set=utf8

[mysql]
#no-auto-rehash	# faster start of mysql but no tab completition
default-character-set=utf8

[isamchk]
key_buffer		= 16M

#
# * IMPORTANT: Additional settings that can override those from this file!
#   The files must end with '.cnf', otherwise they'll be ignored.
#
!includedir /etc/mysql/conf.d/

In config/database.php

$db['default']['char_set'] = 'utf8';

$db['default']['dbcollat'] = 'utf8_general_ci';

locale
LANG=ru_RU
LANGUAGE=
LC_CTYPE="ru_RU"
LC_NUMERIC="ru_RU"
LC_TIME="ru_RU"
LC_COLLATE="ru_RU"
LC_MONETARY="ru_RU"
LC_MESSAGES="ru_RU"
LC_PAPER="ru_RU"
LC_NAME="ru_RU"
LC_ADDRESS="ru_RU"
LC_TELEPHONE="ru_RU"
LC_MEASUREMENT="ru_RU"
LC_IDENTIFICATION="ru_RU"
LC_ALL=

mysql> show variables like 'collation%';
+----------------------+-----------------+
| Variable_name        | Value           |
+----------------------+-----------------+
| collation_connection | utf8_general_ci |
| collation_database   | utf8_general_ci |
| collation_server     | utf8_general_ci |
+----------------------+-----------------+
3 rows in set (0.00 sec)

mysql> SHOW VARIABLES LIKE 'character_set%';
+--------------------------+----------------------------+
| Variable_name            | Value                      |
+--------------------------+----------------------------+
| character_set_client     | utf8                       |
| character_set_connection | utf8                       |
| character_set_database   | utf8                       |
| character_set_filesystem | binary                     |
| character_set_results    | utf8                       |
| character_set_server     | utf8                       |
| character_set_system     | utf8                       |
| character_sets_dir       | /usr/share/mysql/charsets/ |
+--------------------------+----------------------------+