I am getting desperate now, all I want is a server running apache2 mysql and php. There are tutorials on the net, but most of them are dated, or there missing certain steps that blow newbies out of the water, maybe its just me..
Can someone PLEASE, PLEASE help me find a resource that will guide me through installing a server with the aforementioned software on a Debian Etch system. I cant find anything thats covers, EVERYTHING.

Resources I have found;

aboutdebian.com/internet.htm --> Probably the best one, but dated, and it throws me when referring to files that don't exist on my machine.

howtoforge.com/perfect_setup_debian_etch --> Pretty lengthy tutorial, I read it all twice, and it seems to spend most its time telling you how to do the simple tasks, and skims over the more complicated ones. It doesn't even mention the apache2.conf file for example.

And many others. I must be really missing the big picture here, I keep reading comments in the tutorials, "Oh, this worked perfectly, thank you so much!". I just can't make it work.

Please help me find some information on it, surly someone around here has had success with a tutorial. I would just buy a book, but considering i am just wanting a tinkering project, and not the knowledge of ins and out of the apache server, i think it would probably be overkill.

P.s - I am happy to look at other distros, if you have a good tutorial on another distro or unix, i would still be really grateful to see.

Thank you, and i hop someone can help me.

Have a look at Miles Brennan's Linux Home Server HOWTO and see if you can apply it to your Debian setup. If it fails, you can switch over to Fedora. And don't hesitate to ask questions here. I'm sure that you can get it working by asking the right questions.

My knowledge comes basically from one book about AMP and I applied it to other versions of the individual AMP components on my Slackware 10.x boxes without problems. So I'm not sure where you are gettting stuck.