2. 拷贝 small.cnf、my-medium.cnf、my-huge.cnf、my-innodb-heavy-4G.cnf其中的一个到/etc下，命名为my.cnf
cp /usr/share/mysql/my-medium.cnf /etc/my.cnf

3. 修改my.cnf

vi /etc/my.cnf

在[client]下添加
default-character-set=utf8

在[mysqld]下添加
default-character-set=utf8

4.重新启动MySQL
[root@bogon ~]# /etc/rc.d/init.d/mysql restart
Shutting down MySQL??????????????????????????????????????? [ 确定 ]
Starting MySQL.??????????????????????????????????????????? [ 确定 ]
[root@bogon ~]# mysql -u root -p
Enter password:
Welcome to the MySQL monitor. Commands end with ; or /g.
Your MySQL connection id is 1
Server version: 5.1.22-rc-community-log MySQL Community Edition (GPL)

Type 'help;' or '/h' for help. Type '/c' to clear the buffer.

5.查看字符集设置

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 (0.02 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/ |
+--------------------------+----------------------------+
8 rows in set (0.02 sec)

mysql>

通过配置文件修改:

修改/var/lib/mysql/mydb/db.opt
default-character-set=latin1
default-collation=latin1_swedish_ci
为
default-character-set=utf8
default-collation=utf8_general_ci

重起MySQL:
[root@bogon ~]# /etc/rc.d/init.d/mysql restart