diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index 90ee3b017..6881ec3f3 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@ $HeadURL: https://phpmyadmin.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/phpmyadmin/trunk/phpMyA
 - rfe #1688975 [display] enable copying of auto increment by default
 - bug #2355753 [core] do not bail out creating session on any PHP warning
 - bug #2355925 [display] properly update tooltips in navigation frame
+- bug #2355923 [core] do not use ctype if it is not available
 
 3.1.0.0 (2008-11-28)
 + [auth] Support for Swekey hardware authentication,
diff --git a/Documentation.html b/Documentation.html
index 8be832c55..2bb18ace8 100644
--- a/Documentation.html
+++ b/Documentation.html
@@ -62,6 +62,10 @@
 		and the Standard PHP Library (SPL) extension.
                 </li>
 		<li>To support uploading of ZIP files, you need the PHP <tt>zip</tt> extension.</li>
+        <li>For proper support of multibyte strings (eg. UTF-8, which is
+            currently default), you should install mbstring and ctype
+            extensions.
+        </li>
             <li>You need GD2 support in PHP to display inline
                 thumbnails of JPEGs (&quot;image/jpeg: inline&quot;) with their
                 original aspect ratio</li>
diff --git a/libraries/string.lib.php b/libraries/string.lib.php
index 6cb2d60e1..c6225a061 100644
--- a/libraries/string.lib.php
+++ b/libraries/string.lib.php
@@ -25,6 +25,7 @@ if (! defined('PHPMYADMIN')) {
 }
 
 $GLOBALS['PMA_allow_mbstr'] = @function_exists('mb_strlen');
+$GLOBALS['PMA_allow_ctype'] = @extension_loaded('ctype');
 
 if ($GLOBALS['PMA_allow_mbstr']) {
     mb_internal_encoding($GLOBALS['charset']);
@@ -34,22 +35,22 @@ if ($GLOBALS['PMA_allow_mbstr']) {
 if (defined('PMA_MULTIBYTE_ENCODING') || $GLOBALS['PMA_allow_mbstr']) {
     $GLOBALS['PMA_strpos']      = 'mb_strpos';
     $GLOBALS['PMA_substr']      = 'mb_substr';
-    $GLOBALS['PMA_STR_isAlnum'] = 'ctype_alnum';
-    $GLOBALS['PMA_STR_isDigit'] = 'ctype_digit';
-    $GLOBALS['PMA_STR_isSpace'] = 'ctype_space';
     require './libraries/string_mb.lib.php';
 } else {
     $GLOBALS['PMA_strpos']      = 'strpos';
     $GLOBALS['PMA_substr']      = 'substr';
-    $GLOBALS['PMA_STR_isAlnum'] = 'PMA_STR_isAlnum';
-    $GLOBALS['PMA_STR_isDigit'] = 'PMA_STR_isDigit';
-    $GLOBALS['PMA_STR_isSpace'] = 'PMA_STR_isSpace';
     require './libraries/string_native.lib.php';
 }
 
-if (@extension_loaded('ctype')) {
+if ($GLOBALS['PMA_allow_ctype']) {
+    $GLOBALS['PMA_STR_isAlnum'] = 'ctype_alnum';
+    $GLOBALS['PMA_STR_isDigit'] = 'ctype_digit';
+    $GLOBALS['PMA_STR_isSpace'] = 'ctype_space';
     require './libraries/string_type_ctype.lib.php';
 } else {
+    $GLOBALS['PMA_STR_isAlnum'] = 'PMA_STR_isAlnum';
+    $GLOBALS['PMA_STR_isDigit'] = 'PMA_STR_isDigit';
+    $GLOBALS['PMA_STR_isSpace'] = 'PMA_STR_isSpace';
     require './libraries/string_type_native.lib.php';
 }