Hi,

I am fairly new to Linux and have what I thought would be a simple question. I am trying to add CURL support to an existing (or new) Mandrake 9.0 server installation. I have been working on this for over a week now and have run into just about every problem imaginable and am still at square one. Some of the problems I have run into:

1. Lack of clear enough install instructions written by anyone (both the software distributor and the open source community)

2. The non-standard locations of Apache, mod_ssl, openssl, and PHP that Mandrake uses - and the lack of documentation of where the programs are placed on the directory tree.

3. Even after CAREFULLY and repeatedly trying to follow what instructions I CAN FIND it still doesn't seem to work.

4. Of course my lack of understanding of what is probably simple *NIX type commands, including "make" cause lots of frustrations.

I have been working on this for over a week and will post this exact same message to as many forums as I can find to try and find a simple step by step, clear installation guide (including all the recompiling steps needed) that I can follow.

I am very familiar with computer systems and find this particular problem to be VERY frustrating, primarily because of the lack of good documentation. Once I figure this one out I will add it to my web page for others to benefit from.

Problem parameters:
- Server is an x86 box running Mandrake Linux 9.0
- I am trying to install CURL, a library of functions that are added to PHP
- I want to continue using MySQL from PHP
- I am using Apache, I don't care which version as I have tried 1.x and 2.x
- I have tried Apache 1.3.27, CURL 7.9.x, PHP 4.3.2, and the various openssl and mod_ssl packages needed. I have tried the instructions at:

http://curl.sourceforge.net/libcurl/php/install.htm

To no avail. The instructions SEEM clear enough but I have tried following them EXACTLY and they do not work for me.

Thank you and I look forward to ANYONE's help on this.



Thanks again,

Dennis McEntire