as an update to this, i have 3 RaQ4s. the upgrade/install failed on 2 of them with the same error (as above). the third went through fine. the only difference in PHP was that the successful server used imap-2002e whereas the failed servers used imap-2004b. i tried building PHP without imap on one of the failed ones but still no joy.
apache is identical on all three servers.
any ideas?