0007802: mariadb service ignores /etc/my.cnf

I have tried to change mariadb collation to utf8 by editing /etc/my.cnf and setting collation-server and character-set-server options, but those are ignored when I start the service.<br /> If started via command line like 'mysqld_safe --defaults-file=/etc/my.cnf', then all is ok.<br /> Also, '/usr/libexec/mysqld --help --verbose' shows desired configuration.<br /> It seems that somehow, mysqld_safe without parameters simply ignores any configuration.