Can I only set one option in this statement? Works - $TYPO3_CONF_VARS['SYS']['setDBinit'] = 'SET SESSION sql_mode=MYSQL40;' Works - $TYPO3_CONF_VARS['SYS']['setDBinit'] = 'SET NAMES utf8;'; Does not work $TYPO3_CONF_VARS['SYS']['setDBinit'] = 'SET SESSION sql_mode=MYSQL40; SET NAMES utf8;'; I tried setting these in the database themselves but that did not help.