title: "Server sent charset (255) unknown to the client" Set MySQL charset to utf8 w/o /etc/my.cnf?
body: <p>I'm trying to connect to a MySQL database from phpMyAdmin. But when I put in username and password I get two error messages saying:</p>
  
  <pre><code>mysqli_real_connect(): Server sent charset (255) unknown to the client. Please, report to the developers
  
  mysqli_real_connect(): (HY000/2054): Server sent charset unknown to the client. Please, report to the developers
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I'm using MySQL 8.0.11 and phpMyAdmin 4.8.2 </p>
  
  <p>I found this answer for a similar problem: 
   <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/43437490/pdo-construct-server-sent-charset-255-unknown-to-the-client-please-rep">PDO::__construct(): Server sent charset (255) unknown to the client. Please, report to the developers</a></p>
  
  <p>Here is the important part: "MySQL 8 changed the default charset to utfmb4. But some clients don't know this charset. Hence when the server reports its default charset to the client, and the client doesn't know what the server means, it throws this error."</p>
  
  <p>The solution given is to change the default charset back to utf8 by adding a few lines to /etc/my.cnf and restart mysqld.</p>
  
  <p>My problem is that /etc/my.cnf doesn't exist anywhere in my files so I can't change the default charset there. All of the other places I've looked end up referring to /my.cnf or reference older versions.</p>
  
  <p>So, how do I change the default charset to utf8 without a /etc/my.cnf for MySQL 8?</p>