Source Large DB Backup - "Variable not set" errors

Got a question: have a 2gb backup file that I cannot import (using ‘source’ command) into new DB. It runs great, creates most of the records. But, then it stops with several errors basically stating “Variable [xyz] can’t be set to the value of ‘Null’”.

I’m pretty sure this is because at the beginning of the file it is instructing MySQL to set the variables to new values and to reset them to the old values at the end of the script. At least, that’s the gist of the research I’ve done.

So, I tried importing again only manually creating the DB myself and assigning the variables beforehand. However, the script still ended with the same errors.

My question is: how can I remove those variable-setting statements from the file altogether. By another dump w/o comments?

What other suggestions are there to get this new DB imported?

thanks in advance.