Downloaded Oracle 8.1.7 and installed the default Client configuration.
Ran ./configure --with-apxs --without-xml --with-oracle=/var/oracle --with-oci8=/var/oracle --without-mysql
Runs fine, compiles fine, installs fine.   I try to load apache, it immediately dies without a trace in the logs.

Here's the gdb backtrace:
(gdb) bt
#0  0x407800f8 in ?? ()
#1  0x400e69bf in __getpwnam_r (name=0x80cefbc "apache", resbuf=0x401490a0, buffer=0x80d6d60 "apache", buflen=1024, result=0xbfffd738)
    at ../nss/getXXbyYY_r.c:182
#2  0x400e6211 in getpwnam (name=0x80cefbc "apache") at ../nss/getXXbyYY.c:137
#3  0x8084f54 in ap_uname2id ()
#4  0x8071208 in set_user ()
#5  0x806c0bd in invoke_cmd ()
#6  0x806cae1 in ap_handle_command ()
#7  0x806cb7d in ap_srm_command_loop ()
#8  0x806d249 in ap_process_resource_config ()
#9  0x806dbac in ap_read_config ()
#10 0x8077c00 in standalone_main ()
#11 0x807853c in main ()
#12 0x4007e9ee in __libc_start_main (main=0x80781a4 <main>, argc=1, argv=0xbffffa44, init=0x804ed80 <_init>, fini=0x80ae204 <_fini>,
    rtld_fini=0x4000a570 <_dl_fini>, stack_end=0xbffffa3c) at ../sysdeps/generic/libc-start.c:90