I have recently upgraded my Linux machine from Red Hat to Fedore Core 4. The PHP version on the machine is 5.0.4. I would now like to start using the gd2 libraries in PHP. I found the php.ini file in /etc and PHPInfo() also indicates that this is the file that PHP loads. The ini file indicates extension_dir = "/usr/lib/php/modules" but I can only find ldap, mysql, mysqli and odbc .so files in the modules directory. I obviously need a files called gd2.so in the same directory. So I thought I would download PHP 5.1.4 and follow the instructions to install. Maybe that will give my gd2 support. Downloaded php-5.1.4.tar.gz and extracted it. Found the configure command (rather HUGE) and started it.

This is what I see:
Configuring SAPI modules
checking for AOLserver support... no
checking for Apache 1.x module support via DSO through APXS... no
checking for Apache 1.x module support... no
checking for mod_charset compatibility option... no
checking for Apache 2.0 filter-module support via DSO through APXS... no
checking for Apache 2.0 handler-module support via DSO through APXS...

Sorry, I cannot run apxs. Possible reasons follow:

1. Perl is not installed
2. apxs was not found. Try to pass the path using --with-apxs2=/path/to/apxs
3. Apache was not built using --enable-so (the apxs usage page is displayed)

The output of /usr/sbin/apxs follows:
./configure: line 6335: /usr/sbin/apxs: No such file or directory
configure: error: Aborting

Now I am stuck. I do not know what APXS is and I have no idea what to do next. And no, I am not a whizz at Linux at all.

Any help woudld be appreciated.

Thanks,
Philip

It has been my experience that the only safe way to add, change or update software on your system is through the use of RPMs. If I want to add software that is available only in .tar.gz format, then, running as a regular user (i.e. not root), I would want to build an RPM out of that first (something that I have yet to thrash out and documentation on how to do this is not clear at all) and then install the RPM on my system.

To install and manage RPMs, you need a GUI that shows everything about your RPMs, such as dependencies, conflicts, etc., at a glance. If you don't already have it, I would recommend smart-0.41-2.2.fc4.i386.rpm and smart-gui-0.41-2.2.fc4.i386.rpm. Download these RPMs and use "rpm -i <filename>" to install them. Once you have them installed, you should then be able to see what it takes to install php 5.1.4 on your system.

Hi xode,

Thanks for the help. I downloaded the two smart RPMs as well as an update for it. I then ran it, and what a pleasure. MySQL is now updated, not quite to the level I wanted since smart only shows up to 4.1.20-1.FC4. I am now downloading the latest PHP rpms for installation.

Thanks again,
qbqb_ct

i've successfully installed fedora 4 & 5 with apache, php5 and mysql all from source packages if u still want help?

Hi all,

Thanks for all the suggestions and help. I have now upgraded the OS to FC5. PHP and MySQL are now also upgraded to the latest levels and it seems as if all the problems with collation and char sets are fixed.

Regards,
Philip