diff --git a/core/src/main/java/hudson/WebAppMain.java b/core/src/main/java/hudson/WebAppMain.java
index 72374e498e..6b361f6000 100644
--- a/core/src/main/java/hudson/WebAppMain.java
+++ b/core/src/main/java/hudson/WebAppMain.java
@@ -4,9 +4,18 @@ import com.thoughtworks.xstream.converters.reflection.PureJavaReflectionProvider
 import com.thoughtworks.xstream.core.JVM;
 import hudson.model.Hudson;
 import hudson.model.User;
-import hudson.triggers.Trigger;
 import hudson.triggers.SafeTimerTask;
-import hudson.util.*;
+import hudson.triggers.Trigger;
+import hudson.util.HudsonIsLoading;
+import hudson.util.IncompatibleServletVersionDetected;
+import hudson.util.IncompatibleVMDetected;
+import hudson.util.InsufficientPermissionDetected;
+import hudson.util.NoHomeDir;
+import hudson.util.RingBufferLogHandler;
+import hudson.util.NoTempDir;
+import org.jvnet.localizer.LocaleProvider;
+import org.kohsuke.stapler.Stapler;
+import org.kohsuke.stapler.StaplerRequest;
 
 import javax.naming.Context;
 import javax.naming.InitialContext;
@@ -20,16 +29,12 @@ import javax.xml.transform.TransformerFactoryConfigurationError;
 import java.io.File;
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.io.InputStream;
-import java.util.Properties;
+import java.net.URL;
+import java.net.URLClassLoader;
 import java.util.Locale;
+import java.util.Properties;
 import java.util.logging.Level;
 import java.util.logging.Logger;
-import java.net.URLClassLoader;
-import java.net.URL;
-
-import org.kohsuke.stapler.Stapler;
-import org.kohsuke.stapler.StaplerRequest;
-import org.jvnet.localizer.LocaleProvider;
 
 /**
  * Entry point when Hudson is used as a webapp.
@@ -97,6 +102,17 @@ public class WebAppMain implements ServletContextListener {
                 return;
             }
 
+            // some containers (in particular Tomcat) doesn't abort a launch
+            // even if the temp directory doesn't exist.
+            // check that and report an error
+            try {
+                File f = File.createTempFile("test", "test");
+                f.delete();
+            } catch (IOException e) {
+                context.setAttribute(APP,new NoTempDir(e));
+                return;
+            }
+
             // Tomcat breaks XSLT with JDK 5.0 and onward. Check if that's the case, and if so,
             // try to correct it
             try {
diff --git a/core/src/main/java/hudson/util/NoTempDir.java b/core/src/main/java/hudson/util/NoTempDir.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..12cfff9055
--- /dev/null
+++ b/core/src/main/java/hudson/util/NoTempDir.java
@@ -0,0 +1,32 @@
+package hudson.util;
+
+import java.io.IOException;
+import java.io.PrintWriter;
+import java.io.StringWriter;
+
+/**
+ * Model object used to display the error top page if
+ * there appears to be no temporary directory.
+ *
+ * <p>
+ * <tt>index.jelly</tt> would display a nice friendly error page.
+ *
+ * @author Kohsuke Kawaguchi
+ */
+public class NoTempDir {
+    public final IOException exception;
+
+    public NoTempDir(IOException exception) {
+        this.exception = exception;
+    }
+
+    public String getStackTrace() {
+        StringWriter sw = new StringWriter();
+        exception.printStackTrace(new PrintWriter(sw));
+        return sw.toString();
+    }
+
+    public String getTempDir() {
+        return System.getProperty("java.io.tmpdir");
+    }
+}
diff --git a/core/src/main/resources/hudson/util/NoTempDir/index.jelly b/core/src/main/resources/hudson/util/NoTempDir/index.jelly
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..aa92ba7bf1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/core/src/main/resources/hudson/util/NoTempDir/index.jelly
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+<j:jelly xmlns:j="jelly:core" xmlns:st="jelly:stapler" xmlns:d="jelly:define" xmlns:l="/lib/layout" xmlns:t="/lib/hudson" xmlns:f="/lib/form" xmlns:i="jelly:fmt">
+  <l:layout>
+    <l:header title="Hudson" />
+    <l:side-panel />
+    <l:main-panel>
+      <h1><img src="${imagesURL}/48x48/error.gif" alt="[!]"/><st:nbsp/>${%Error}</h1>
+      <p>${%description(it.tempDir)}</p>
+      <pre>${it.stackTrace}</pre>
+    </l:main-panel>
+  </l:layout>
+</j:jelly>
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/core/src/main/resources/hudson/util/NoTempDir/index.properties b/core/src/main/resources/hudson/util/NoTempDir/index.properties
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..715da0ad15
--- /dev/null
+++ b/core/src/main/resources/hudson/util/NoTempDir/index.properties
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+description=\
+  Unable to create a temporary file. This is most likely caused by \
+  a mis-configuration of the container. The JVM seems to be told to use \
+  "{0}" as the temporary directory. Does this directory exist and is it writable? 
\ No newline at end of file