Why isn't the MySQL extension loading?

Question

Please help! I've been going at it for a while and I can't get it to install, keep getting the ol message below.

Running on my own server. MYSql, PHP, Apache instaled. Already uncommented the extension in my php.ini. The module is installed and can see the mysql.so file. Already ran phpinfo() http://guerraysaenz.us/test.php

Your PHP installation appears to be missing the MySQL extension which is required by WordPress.

Apache error log:

PHP Warning: Module 'pdo_mysql' already loaded in Unknown on line 0
[Sat Jul 07 11:59:23 2012] [notice] Apache/2.2.22 (Ubuntu) DAV/2 SVN/1.6.17 mod_fcgid/2.3.6 PHP/5.3.10-1ubuntu3.2 with Suhosin-Patch mod_ruby/1.2.6 Ruby/1.8.7(2011-06-30) mod_ssl/2.2.22 OpenSSL/1.0.1 configured -- resuming normal operations
PHP Warning: PHP Startup: Unable to load dynamic library '/usr/lib/php5/20090626/modulename.extension' - /usr/lib/php5/20090626/modulename.extension: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory in Unknown on line 0
PHP Warning: PHP Startup: Unable to load dynamic library '/usr/lib/php5/20090626/pdo_sqlite.so' - /usr/lib/php5/20090626/pdo_sqlite.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory in Unknown on line 0
PHP Warning: PHP Startup: Unable to load dynamic library '/usr/lib/php5/20090626/msql.so' - /usr/lib/php5/20090626/msql.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory in Unknown on line 0
PHP Warning: Module 'PDO' already loaded in Unknown on line 0
PHP Warning: Module 'pdo_mysql' already loaded in Unknown on line 0

Answer 1

Perhaps try backing up /etc/php5, then doing

sudo apt-get purge php5-common libapache2-mod-php5 php5-mysql

This will remove all of your configurations for those packages. Then re install them

sudo apt-get install libapache2-mod-php5 php5-mysql

That should put fresh configs for those modules back in place. Then you can compare what is there to your backup of /etc/php5 and probably figure out what the problem was.