I compiled PHP3 statically into Apache 1.3.9 from the tarballs.
The PHP modules (Oracle, gd...) were compiled statically into the PHP.
With a successful build, I was easily able to get gd support to work, and I thought Oracle support would also work, but it fails on my first attempt at connection.

I am using the "free download" Oracle 8i Enterprise Edition (ver 8.1 with 8.1.5_01 patch)

Here's the backtrace:
-----------------------
[root@cr309449-a bin]# gdb /www/bin/httpd
GNU gdb 4.17.0.11 with Linux support
Copyright 1998 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
GDB is free software, covered by the GNU General Public License, and you are
welcome to change it and/or distribute copies of it under certain conditions.
Type "show copying" to see the conditions.
There is absolutely no warranty for GDB.  Type "show warranty" for details.
This GDB was configured as "i386-redhat-linux"...
(gdb) run -X
Starting program: /www/bin/httpd -X

Program received signal SIGTRAP, Trace/breakpoint trap.
0x812b8ed in gdFontTiny ()
(gdb) bt
#0  0x812b8ed in gdFontTiny ()
#1  0x8084597 in php3_Ora_Do_Logon (ht=0x817f680, return_value=0x813cc78, 
    list=0x813eba0, plist=0x813eb60, persistent=1) at functions/oracle.c:507
#2  0x80843a2 in php3_Ora_PLogon (ht=0x817f680, return_value=0x813cc78, 
    list=0x813eba0, plist=0x813eb60) at functions/oracle.c:427
#3  0x80a449c in phpparse () at control_structures_inline.h:934
#4  0x8065e88 in php3_parse (yyin=0x8178b50) at main.c:1553
#5  0x8066050 in apache_php3_module_main (r=0x8176124, fd=19, 
    display_source_mode=0, preprocessed=0) at main.c:1934
#6  0x8063609 in send_php3 ()
#7  0x806366a in send_parsed_php3 ()
#8  0x80b0d23 in ap_invoke_handler ()
#9  0x80c4019 in process_request_internal ()
#10 0x80c407c in ap_process_request ()
#11 0x80bba3e in child_main ()
#12 0x80bbbcc in make_child ()
#13 0x80bbd29 in startup_children ()
#14 0x80bc356 in standalone_main ()
#15 0x80bcad3 in main ()
#16 0x40648cb3 in __libc_start_main (main=0x80bc79c <main>, argc=2, 
    argv=0xbffffd84, init=0x804bbb0 <_init>, fini=0x80f06fc <_fini>, 
    rtld_fini=0x4000a350 <_dl_fini>, stack_end=0xbffffd7c)
    at ../sysdeps/generic/libc-start.c:78
(gdb) 

Here's the script which causes failure:
--------------------------------------------
Trying to connect to Oracle<BR>
<?
 putenv("LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/home/OraHome1/lib");
 putenv("ORACLE_HOME=/home/OraHome1");
 putenv("ORACLE_SID=TS01");

 $conn = ora_logon("reader", "reader");
 if ($conn) {
   print("connected !<BR>\n");
   ora_logoff($conn);
 } else {
   print("not connected<BR>\n");
 }

?>

(Note: even the first line of text is not flushed out to the browser)

Here is the configure line I used for PHP:
-----------------------------------------------
./configure --with-gd --with-oracle=/home/OraHome1 --with-apache=../apache_1.3.9 --enable-track-vars --enable-debug --enable-debugger --enable-safe-mode

The only changes I made to the php3.ini file were attempts at obtaining logging information about this problem.

I can easily obtain more information to assist in the resolution of this problem.