I already posted this issue in the Mandriva forum and hate to post it again, but I think this is an issue that's really not Mandriva specific, as I once thought.

Here's the issue. After upgrading from Mandriva 2006 to 2007, apache gives me this error when starting:

> /etc/init.d/httpd start
Starting httpd: Syntax error on line 46 of /etc/httpd/modules.d/41_mod_ssl.default-vhost.conf:
SSLCertificateFile: file '/etc/pki/tls/certs/localhost.crt' does not exist or is empty
[FAILED]

If I comment out that line it gives me this error:

Starting httpd: Syntax error on line 53 of /etc/httpd/modules.d/41_mod_ssl.default-vhost.conf:
SSLCertificateKeyFile: file '/etc/pki/tls/private/localhost.key' does not exist or is empty

comment them both out and I just get a starting httpd failed message.

So I think this is a simple matter of creating these certificates. Why they got deleted is anybody's guess.

I googled a little, but can't find anything too helpful......so does anyone here know how I can create these certificates and get my server back online?

Did you take a look first to see if those files exist or they are renamed to something else?
If you want to re-create them, you can read this guide.

Thanks for pointing me that guide, that did it.

No, I checked the relevant directories and didn't find any keys.....they weren't simply re-named, kinda odd, but it's been solved. Thanks again.

Upgrading Mandriva probably also upgraded apache. You may have had your old configs renames before replacing them with the ones from the new package.

You might also look in /etc/ for other config files renamed with .rpmnew or .rpmold added to the end. Sometimes the rpm install script will leave your old config in place and supply a new one with the rpmnew extension. You will want to read both. There may be new config settings that you might need.