[Wylug-help] mod_ssl scalps apache!

[Mike]

Help, advice and replacement hair available, anyone?

I've just built myself a server on some old kit - PIII, 40GB hdd, 384MB
PC100 RAM. Installed RH9, server version, but deselected PHP, HTTPD and,
second go when I couldn't get newly-downloaded and built from binary
Apache to work, mod_ssl.

Downloaded and installed MySQL RPMs for server, client, devel and
shared. Downloaded .tar.gz's, then installed zlib, curl, PDFlib_lite,
Apache_1.3.33 and finally, as an Apache module and --with the others
(apxs for Apache, --enable-shared for pdflib) php4.3.8. Everything
worked OK. Screens as expected in networked machines' browsers.

Next, OpenSSL and mod_ssl. OpenSSL appears to have loaded OK - it was
already there in the RH9 installation but had no directory
/usr/local/ssl. Still everything appeared OK and I was able to produce a
server certificate from the OpenSSL command line as soon as I had
installed mod_ssl and rebuilt Apache, configuring with (same prefix as
before) --prefix=/usr/local/apache --enable-module=most
--enable-shared=max --enable-shared=ssl

Now it's time to test Apache again, ./apachectl configtest

What I get is a line for each module similar to the following:

[date-timestamp] [warn] Loaded DSO libexec/libphp4.so uses plain Apache
1.3 API, this module might crash under EAPI! (please recompile it with
-DEAPI)

followed by Syntax OK

In spite of that the ./apchectls start and stop commands work and a
browser on a networked machine shows what I would expect to see.
However, when I try ./apachectl startssl the list of error messages
appears and the screen seems to hang - I can type into the console but
there is no prompt and no commands are obeyed. It does not get as far as
Enter pass phrase.

I have not found any solution on the web, just the information that
recompiling each module should cure the problem because mod_ssl has
altered the Apache settings. I recompiled php and cannot make any
difference. What am I doing wrong? how can I put it right? The server is
only for me to check my web designs and scripting but I would
nevertheless like to be able to do the shopping cart bit, some
membership stuff and a few other things for which ssl would be useful.

Also, it is my aim to try out Mambo. Is it worth installing prior to
fixing the current problems? Or will I have to redo it all once fixed?

Sorry it's so wordy, simply trying to give as much info as I can predict
any helper would have to ask for anyway.

Best regards,

Mike