diff --git a/install.php b/install.php
index b2764100ae6..d3ad6d358a6 100644
--- a/install.php
+++ b/install.php
@@ -163,10 +163,12 @@ function install_main() {
  * Verify if Drupal is installed.
  */
 function install_verify_drupal() {
-  // Read the variable manually using the @ so we don't trigger an error if it fails.
-  $result = @db_query("SELECT value FROM {variable} WHERE name = '%s'", 'install_task');
-  if ($result) {
-    return unserialize(db_result($result));
+  if(db_table_exists('variable')) {
+    // Read the variable manually using the @ so we don't trigger an error if it fails.
+    $result = @db_query("SELECT value FROM {variable} WHERE name = '%s'", 'install_task');
+    if ($result) {
+      return unserialize(db_result($result));
+    }
   }
 }
 
diff --git a/modules/user/user.module b/modules/user/user.module
index 5ff9a35a361..35521618d73 100644
--- a/modules/user/user.module
+++ b/modules/user/user.module
@@ -519,15 +519,14 @@ function user_access($string, $account = NULL, $reset = FALSE) {
   if (!isset($account)) {
     $account = $user;
   }
-
   // User #1 has all privileges:
-  if ($account->uid == 1) {
+  if ((int) ($account->uid ?? 0) === 1) {
     return TRUE;
   }
 
   // To reduce the number of SQL queries, we cache the user's permissions
   // in a static variable.
-  if (!isset($perm[$account->uid])) {
+  if (!isset($perm[$account->uid ?? 0]) && !empty($account->roles)) {
     $result = db_query("SELECT p.perm FROM {role} r INNER JOIN {permission} p ON p.rid = r.rid WHERE r.rid IN (". db_placeholders($account->roles) .")", array_keys($account->roles));
 
     $perms = array();
diff --git a/sites/default/default.settings.php b/sites/default/default.settings.php
index 1a4a01fc5fd..26b1b45b6d1 100644
--- a/sites/default/default.settings.php
+++ b/sites/default/default.settings.php
@@ -153,18 +153,19 @@
  * settings are used there. Settings defined here should not be
  * duplicated there so as to avoid conflict issues.
  */
-ini_set('arg_separator.output',     '&');
-ini_set('magic_quotes_runtime',     0);
-ini_set('magic_quotes_sybase',      0);
-ini_set('session.cache_expire',     200000);
-ini_set('session.cache_limiter',    'none');
-ini_set('session.cookie_lifetime',  2000000);
-ini_set('session.gc_maxlifetime',   200000);
-ini_set('session.use_cookies',      1);
-ini_set('session.use_only_cookies', 1);
-ini_set('session.use_trans_sid',    0);
-ini_set('url_rewriter.tags',        '');
-
+if (PHP_VERSION_ID < 80000) {
+  ini_set('arg_separator.output', '&amp;');
+  ini_set('magic_quotes_runtime', 0);
+  ini_set('magic_quotes_sybase', 0);
+  ini_set('session.cache_expire', 200000);
+  ini_set('session.cache_limiter', 'none');
+  ini_set('session.cookie_lifetime', 2000000);
+  ini_set('session.gc_maxlifetime', 200000);
+  ini_set('session.use_cookies', 1);
+  ini_set('session.use_only_cookies', 1);
+  ini_set('session.use_trans_sid', 0);
+  ini_set('url_rewriter.tags', '');
+}
 /**
  * If you encounter a situation where users post a large amount of text, and
  * the result is stripped out upon viewing but can still be edited, Drupal's