I set utf8 to all possible places and I'm still getting question marks instead of some special characters (???? for ěšřů) when they are saved into database.

In conf/settings.php there is:
$Configuration['DATABASE_CHARACTER_ENCODING'] = 'utf8';
$Configuration['CHARSET'] = 'utf-8';
database is
mysql> show create database dforum;
+----------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Database | Create Database |
+----------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| dforum | CREATE DATABASE `dforum` /*!40100 DEFAULT CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_czech_ci */ |
+----------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+and tables are all utf8_czech_ci collation

I made a test and saved this code into conf/language.php
mysql_query("set names utf8");
mysql_query("set character set utf8");

echo "<pre>";
printf("The current character set is: %s\n", mysql_client_encoding());
printf("MySQL client info: %s\n", mysql_get_client_info());
printf("MySQL host info: %s\n", mysql_get_host_info());
printf("MySQL protocol version: %s\n", mysql_get_proto_info());
printf("MySQL server version: %s\n", mysql_get_server_info());
echo "</pre>";
exit;Result is:
The current character set is: latin1
MySQL client info: 5.0.22
MySQL host info: Localhost via UNIX socket
MySQL protocol version: 10
MySQL server version: 5.0.27But it is possible that mysql_client_encoding() lies as mentioned here

This:
mysql -u dforum --default-character-set=utf8 -p dforum
mysql> statusproduces

mysql Ver 14.12 Distrib 5.0.27, for redhat-linux-gnu (i686) using readline 5.0
...
Server version: 5.0.27
Protocol version: 10
Connection: Localhost via UNIX socket
Server characterset: latin1
Db characterset: utf8
Client characterset: utf8
Conn. characterset: utf8
UNIX socket: /var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock
...

Is it the Server characterset?

I already met this problem before not at Vanilla and I've never solved it. And it was on a machine with phpmyadmin installed and pma managed to connect to database without any problems and displayed all characters well. I tried to go through the code of phpmyadmin, but found nothing.
I tried to change all possible mysql server settings there to utf8 and it didn't help.
I use vanilla on my local computer and on one server without any problem, and this is my third Vanilla install I did and this one only has problems with utf :/

uutf?!
Am I missing something?! :/
Do you have any ideas?

Forum is installed at http://forum.demokracie.info/ (if you need access I created temporary test/test)

JFI some info from phpinfo():
PHP Version 5.1.4
...
default_charset no value no value
...
mysql
MySQL Support enabled
Active Persistent Links 1
Active Links 2
Client API version 5.0.22
MYSQL_MODULE_TYPE external
MYSQL_SOCKET /var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock
MYSQL_INCLUDE -I/usr/include/mysql
MYSQL_LIBS -L/usr/lib/mysql -lmysqlclient

Directive Local Value Master Value
mysql.allow_persistent On On
mysql.connect_timeout 60 60
mysql.default_host no value no value
mysql.default_password no value no value
mysql.default_port no value no value
mysql.default_socket no value no value
mysql.default_user no value no value
mysql.max_links Unlimited Unlimited
mysql.max_persistent Unlimited Unlimited
mysql.trace_mode Off Off

mysqli
MysqlI Support enabled
Client API library version 5.0.22
Client API header version 5.0.18
MYSQLI_SOCKET /var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock

Directive Local Value Master Value
mysqli.default_host no value no value
mysqli.default_port 3306 3306
mysqli.default_pw no value no value
mysqli.default_socket no value no value
mysqli.default_user no value no value
mysqli.max_links Unlimited Unlimited
mysqli.reconnect Off Off
...

oh my!!!!
I forgot to alter collate table columns!!!

mysql> show full columns from LUM_Comment;
+---------------+---------------+-------------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+----------------------+---------+
| Field | Type | Collation | Null | Key | Default | Extra | Privileges | Comment |
+---------------+---------------+-------------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+----------------------+---------+
...
| Body | text | latin1_swedish_ci | YES | | NULL | | select,insert,update | |
...
+---------------+---------------+-------------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+----------------------+---------+after a change:
| Body | text | utf8_czech_ci | YES | | NULL | | select,insert,update | |it works!

I spent hours on this issue and finally went to bed and I couldn't sleep and I realized that!

thanks anyway :)

Yes I changed, because it was set latin1 by hosting provider.

Maybe there could be a statement in the installer about creating the database DEFAULT utf8 is the best and it saves time if it is set before the install

oh I see, I just checked the code. Still I think it would be better to give a notice to user, that if database is already created and is not created default utf8.
From providers you often get access to already created database and such a notice could save time in future :-)