MySQL server has gone away

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/678645/does-mysql-included-with-mamp-not-include-a-config-file

The MySQL server of MAMP (not PRO) will be started without any my.cnf file. But you can create your own my.cnf file.

Stop servers
Create a "my.cnf" file in "/Applications/MAMP/conf/".
Add your content in to "my.cnf"
Save "my.cnf"
Start servers
You do not have to put a complete configuration in the my.cnf file. You can just add parts of a configuration ... for example:

[mysqld]
max_allowed_packet = 64M