C.5.2.17. `Can't initialize character set`

You might see an error like this if you have character set problems:

MySQL Connection Failed: Can't initialize character set charset_name

This error can have any of the following causes:

The character set is a multi-byte character set and you have no support for the character set in the client. In this case, you need to recompile the client by running CMake with the -DDEFAULT_CHARSET=charset_name or -DWITH_EXTRA_CHARSETS=charset_name option. See Section 2.9.4, "MySQL Source-Configuration Options".

All standard MySQL binaries are compiled with -DWITH_EXTRA_CHARSETS=complex, which enables support for all multi-byte character sets. See Section 2.9.4, "MySQL Source-Configuration Options".
The character set is a simple character set that is not compiled into mysqld, and the character set definition files are not in the place where the client expects to find them.

In this case, you need to use one of the following methods to solve the problem:
- Recompile the client with support for the character set. See Section 2.9.4, "MySQL Source-Configuration Options".
- Specify to the client the directory where the character set definition files are located. For many clients, you can do this with the --character-sets-dir option.
- Copy the character definition files to the path where the client expects them to be.

C.5.2.17. Can't initialize character set