Index: typo3/sysext/lowlevel/config/index.php
===================================================================
--- typo3/sysext/lowlevel/config/index.php	(revision 10658)
+++ typo3/sysext/lowlevel/config/index.php	(working copy)
@@ -267,10 +267,22 @@
 			if (t3lib_div::_GP('writetoexttables')) { // Write the line to extTables.php
 					// change value to $GLOBALS
 				$length = strpos($line, '[');
-				$var = substr($line, 0, $length);
+				$var = substr($line, 1, $length-1);
 				$changedLine = '$GLOBALS[\'' . substr($line, 1, $length - 1) . '\']' . substr($line, $length);
-					// insert line  in extTables.php
+					// load current extTables.php
 				$extTables = t3lib_div::getURL(PATH_typo3conf . TYPO3_extTableDef_script);
+					// check if we're editing the TCA
+				if ($var == 'TCA') {
+					preg_match_all("/\['([^']+)'\]/", $line, $parts);
+						// anything else than ctrl section requires a loadTCA()
+					if ($parts[1][1] != 'ctrl') {
+						$loadTCA = 't3lib_div::loadTCA(\'' . $parts[1][0] . '\');';
+							// check if the loadTCA statement is not already present in the file
+						if (strpos($extTables, $loadTCA) === false)
+							$changedLine = $loadTCA . "\n" . $changedLine;
+					}
+				}
+					// insert line in extTables.php
 				$extTables = '<?php' . preg_replace('/<\?php|\?>/is', '', $extTables) . $changedLine . LF . '?>';
 				$success = t3lib_div::writeFile(PATH_typo3conf . TYPO3_extTableDef_script, $extTables);
 				if ($success) {