diff --git a/mysql-test/include/check-warnings.test b/mysql-test/include/check-warnings.test
index 9f404201ab8..ef0e92df29c 100644
--- a/mysql-test/include/check-warnings.test
+++ b/mysql-test/include/check-warnings.test
@@ -4,6 +4,44 @@
 # for unexpected warnings found in the servers error log
 #
 --disable_query_log
+
+# Turn off any debug crashes, allow the variable to be
+# non existent in release builds
+--error 0,1193
+set debug="";
+
+use mtr;
+
+create temporary table error_log (
+  row int auto_increment primary key,
+  line varchar(1024) null
+) engine=myisam;
+
+# Get the name of servers error log
+let $log_error= query_get_value(show variables like 'log_error', Value, 1);
+
+# Try to load the error log into the temporary table
+--error 0,1085
+eval load data infile '$log_error' into table error_log (line);
+if ($mysql_errno)
+{
+  # The error log was not world readable, this is normally
+  # caused by a "flush logs" in the test program. mysqld
+  # will then rename the error log to .err-old and open
+  # a new error log file that is not world readable.
+  # chmod the error log file and try to open it again
+  chmod 0644 $log_error;
+  eval load data infile '$log_error' into table error_log (line);
+
+  # Also load the .err-old file where there might be
+  # additional warnings
+  let $old_log_error = $log_error-old;
+  chmod 0644 $old_log_error;
+  eval load data infile '$old_log_error' into table error_log (line);
+}
+
+# Call check_warnings to filter out any warning in
+# the error_log table
 call mtr.check_warnings(@result);
 if (`select @result = 0`){
   skip OK;
diff --git a/mysql-test/include/mtr_warnings.sql b/mysql-test/include/mtr_warnings.sql
index 3da64fbd791..b65a6ae69ba 100644
--- a/mysql-test/include/mtr_warnings.sql
+++ b/mysql-test/include/mtr_warnings.sql
@@ -219,40 +219,10 @@ INSERT INTO global_suppressions VALUES
 --
 CREATE DEFINER=root@localhost PROCEDURE check_warnings(OUT result INT)
 BEGIN
-  DECLARE `text` mediumtext charset utf8;
   DECLARE `pos` bigint unsigned;
 
   -- Don't write these queries to binlog
   SET SQL_LOG_BIN=0;
-  --
-  -- Load the server .err file into "error_log" table
-  --
-  CREATE TEMPORARY TABLE error_log (
-    row INT AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY,
-    line mediumtext NULL
-  ) ENGINE=MyISAM;
-
-  SELECT variable_value INTO @log_error
-    FROM information_schema.global_variables
-      WHERE variable_name='LOG_ERROR';
-
-  SET @old_max_allowed_packet= @@global.max_allowed_packet;
-  SET @@global.max_allowed_packet= 1024*1024*1024;
-  SET text= load_file(@log_error);
-  SET  @@global.max_allowed_packet= @old_max_allowed_packet;
-  -- select text;
-
-  SET pos= LOCATE('\n', text);
-  WHILE pos DO
-    INSERT error_log (line)
-      VALUES (
-       SUBSTR(text, 1, pos-1)
-      );
-    SET text= SUBSTR(text FROM pos+1);
-    SET pos= LOCATE('\n', text);
-  END WHILE;
-
-  -- select * from error_log;
 
   --
   -- Remove all lines belonging to previous tests