Index: includes/bootstrap.inc
===================================================================
RCS file: /cvs/drupal/drupal/includes/bootstrap.inc,v
retrieving revision 1.132
diff -u -r1.132 bootstrap.inc
--- includes/bootstrap.inc	24 Nov 2006 10:16:50 -0000	1.132
+++ includes/bootstrap.inc	1 Dec 2006 18:13:07 -0000
@@ -161,6 +161,12 @@
   global $db_url, $db_prefix, $base_url, $base_path, $base_root, $conf, $installed_profile;
   $conf = array();
   include_once './'. conf_path() .'/settings.php';
+  if (empty($db_url)) {
+    drupal_maintenance_theme();
+    drupal_set_title('Configuration error');
+    print theme('maintenance_page', '<p>The configuration file could not be loaded. Please check that there is a ' . theme('placeholder','settings.php') . ' file in the directory ' . theme('placeholder',conf_path()) . ' (or whichever site directory you want to use) and that it contains the necessary configuration statements and is readable by the web server.</p>');
+    exit;
+  }
 
   if (isset($base_url)) {
     // Parse fixed base URL from settings.php.