Matt,
I had all kinds of trouble getting PHP and MySQL to work on my Linux box, until I found this little jewel...
"Abria SQL Lite" will install Apache, PHP3, and MySQL and get everything working together easily by running a simple script. I ran it on RH 6.1 and it did the trick for me. I looked on their website, and they've changed their products a little, I think they're renamed this package "Merlin, Desktop Edition." There's a free version, and a premium one which costs, but has tech support.
Hope this helps.
http://www.abriasoft.com/index.php