database text format inconsistencies
When you create the moodle database, use something like this:
mysql > create database moodle collate utf8mb4_unicode_ci;
And when you set up the config.php file, make sure the line "dbcollation" mentions the same text format (utf8mb4_unicode_ci).
To check what text collation you used, in mysql, type:
SELECT @@character_set_database, @@collation_database;
If you don't do this, you might have to edit
vi /var/www/html/moodle/lib/dml/mysqli_native_moodle_database.php
and change line 196 to read
$sql = "SELECT @@storage_engine engine";
instead of
$sql = "SELECT @@default_storage_engine engine";