“Server sent charset (255) unknown to the client” Set MySQL charset to utf8 w/o /etc/my.cnf? [duplicate]

Answer 1

Reinstall MySQL 8 and choose Second Method "Use Legacy Authentication Method(Retain MySQL 5.x compatibility)" of Authentication while installing.

Answer 2

To clarify the answer:

1. Create a file called my.cnf in your /etc/ folder.

2. Now add the following text to /etc/my.cnf:

   [client]
   default-character-set=utf8

   [mysql]
   default-character-set=utf8

   [mysqld]
   collation-server = utf8_unicode_ci
   character-set-server = utf8
   default_authentication_plugin = mysql_native_password

Finally, restart mysql and all should be well! If you still have an issue, try upgrading PHP to a later version.

Answer 3

I had this problem also. The issue was because I was running an old version of PHP (5.6) and once I upgraded to PHP 7.4 the errors went away.

This was on Amazon Linux 2 for me and the command to upgrade was:

amazon-linux-extras install php7.4

I've found that many versions of RedHat/CentOS come with PHP 5.6 by default and the easiest way I've been able to upgrade them to the latest PHP is by using remi's repo here (https://rpms.remirepo.net/)