Well, I finally got it working... sort of... and it was indeed what Brion said - database connection errors - thanks Brion. Don't know how or why I could get the configuration running as well as see a valid page after turning on errors to client.... maybe I dreamed all that.
PHP 5 comes with mysql turned off - the opposite of the prior versions. If you do an upgrade, it breaks mysql by turning it off. I think I accidentally did an upgrade... or Fedora did it automatically or something.
I tried recompiling/reconfiguring, had to install lots of junk for that, but didn't really have any problems until I ran into libxml2 - the php configure couldn't find the xml2-config file... because it didn't exist :-) I grabbed libxml2 and configured it and it created the needed file... but php config STILL couldn't find it, even when I set the path for it. [sigh] I was about ready to give up on Fedora 4 and switch to Mandrake or Debian...
But I had one last thing to try... I removed PHP 5 and tried PHP 4.11 RPM. If you try to install it from the Fedora GUI, Fedora will instead grab the latest version - 5 again! D'oh!
So, I removed THAT one using yum, downloaded and saved RPMs for php, php-pear, and php-mysql 4.11-2.5 versions (there's a 2.6 for php and pear, but only 2.5 for mysql), then ran rpm -i on the 3 packages. Restarted httpd and presto - everything is working great.
FYI for anyone who needs remote connections (a dl360 sounds like a 747, and 4 of them sounds like an airport runway...) I started using vncserver with this Fedora release, and wow... I start vncserver from a shell and access the Fedora box with my Windows XP machine running vnc listening viewer. The vncserver and listener is actually an auto-login X session and BLAZING fast - better than xwin32 or exceed or anything else I've ever used. You have to edit xstartup config generated by running vncserver and uncomment a couple of lines - that way you get an auto-login. It's super-easy, just connect vnc to ip.address:1 or :2 or :3 or whatever display your vncserver connected to - no messy configs.
- MHart