Ok I have managed to solve this issue have presented the methodology below:
1. Download libmcrypt-2.5.8.tar.bz2 and mcrypt-2.6.8.tar.gz from
http://sourceforge.net/project/showf...group_id=87941
2. Download SlackBuilds for these sources at
http://slackbuilds.org/repository/12...ies/libmcrypt/ &
http://www.mnspace.net/slackbuilds/slack12.1/ respectively. The Slack 12.1 edition of the second Slackbuild works fine but
it needs to be updated to reflect the new mcrypt version as follwows: "
VERSION=2.6.8".
Note: The latter SlackBuild site above can be a bit slow and even fails to load at times. Another one can be
found there
http://repository.slacky.eu/slackwar...ypt/2.6.7/src/. However, I did not test this SlackBuild.
3. Build libmcrypt-2.5.8.tar.bz2 (./libmcrypt.SlackBuild) and install the resultant package then do the same for mcrypt-2.6.8.tar.gz.
4. Copy the "php" and "alpine" source directories from the Slackware installation media and place them in the "/tmp"
directory. I placed the contents of my "php" source directory in "/tmp/build", however the "alpine" directory needs to be in placed directly in temp "/tmp" (giving /tmp/alpine).
5. Edit "php.SlackBuild" (located in the "php" sources) by adding "--with-mcrypt=shared,/usr/bin \" (without the quotes)
in the list of "configure" prefixes. I placed mine just before before "--build=$ARCH-slackware-linux".
6. Open a virtual terminal, change directory to your php sources "/tmp/build/" in my case, change to root and run
"./php.SlackBuild". At some point during the initial alpine build, you may be asked to whether you wish to continue.
Select "y" to proceed. On a 1.83 Centrino Duo, the duration of the build was about 20 minutes. At the end of a
successful process, there should be "alpine-2", "imapd-2" and "php-5.2.8" packages in the "/tmp" directory.
Confirm that there is a "mcrypt.so" module in "/tmp/package-php/usr/lib/php/extensions"
7. Stop the Apache server (apachectl stop) remove your previous php package and install the newly built version.
8. Edit "/etc/httpd/php.ini" by adding "extension=mcrypt.so" in the list of "Dynamic Extensions".
9. Restart the Apache server (apachectl start).
10. Open phpMyAdmin. The "Cannot load mcrypt extension. Please check your PHP configuration" error message should no
longer be displayed.
Regards