--- bootstrap.inc.orig	2008-06-17 21:06:35.000000000 -0500
+++ bootstrap.inc	2008-06-17 20:58:44.000000000 -0500
@@ -433,8 +433,31 @@
     array("INSERT INTO {variable} (name, value) VALUES ('%s', '%s')", $name, serialize($value))
   );
 
-  $conf[$name] = $value;
-  cache_set('variables', 'cache', $conf);
+  if (!is_array($conf)) {
+    // Something is horribly wrong. Log what we can.
+    $file = tempnam('', 'drc');
+    $fp = fopen($file, 'w');
+    $temp = func_get_args();
+    fwrite($fp, "Function args:\n" . print_r($temp, TRUE));
+    fwrite($fp, "\n------------------------------\n");
+    $temp = error_get_last();
+    fwrite($fp, "Last error:\n" . print_r($temp, TRUE));
+    fwrite($fp, "\n------------------------------\n");
+    $temp = debug_backtrace();
+    fwrite($fp, "Backtrace:\n" . print_r($temp, TRUE));
+    fwrite($fp, "\n------------------------------\n");
+    fwrite($fp, "Current state of conf array:\n" . print_r($conf, TRUE));
+    fwrite($fp, "\n------------------------------\n");
+    fflush($fp);
+    fwrite($fp, "Globals:\n" . print_r($GLOBALS, TRUE));
+    fwrite($fp, "\n------------------------------\n");
+    fclose($fp);
+    watchdog('debug', "Configuration went missing in variable_set! Info was dumped to $file.", WATCHDOG_ERROR);
+  }
+  else {
+    $conf[$name] = $value;
+    cache_set('variables', 'cache', $conf);
+  }
 }
 
 /**