Which mirror did you use to download the files?
Mind sharing your definition on "trouble" with us? :)

Can't reproduce, the two packages i downloaded just now produce exactly the same output for 

  tar -tv{z|j}f php-5.1.4.tar.{gz|bz2}

maybe it is a bug in mc?

my mirror of php-5.1.4:
http://pl2.php.net/get/php-5.1.4.tar.bz2/from/pl.php.net/mirror

[root@swp2 Desktop]# rpm -qa | grep httpd
httpd-2.2.0-5.1.2
httpd-devel-2.2.0-5.1.2
[root@swp2 Desktop]# rpm -e httpd-devel
[root@swp2 Desktop]# rpm -e httpd
błąd: Niespełnione zależności:
        httpd >= 2.2.0 jest wymagany przez (zainstalowany) gnome-user-share-0.10-1.fc5.1.i386
[root@swp2 Desktop]# rpm -e gnome-user-share
[root@swp2 Desktop]# rpm -e httpd
ostrzeżenie: /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf zapisano jako /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf.rpmsave
[root@swp2 Desktop]# yum install httpd-devel
Loading "installonlyn" plugin
Setting up Install Process
Setting up repositories
livna                                                                [1/4]
core                                                                 [2/4]
updates                                                              [3/4]
extras                                                               [4/4]
Reading repository metadata in from local files
Parsing package install arguments
Resolving Dependencies
--> Populating transaction set with selected packages. Please wait.
---> Downloading header for httpd-devel to pack into transaction set.
httpd-devel-2.2.0-5.1.2.i 100% |=========================|  31 kB    00:01
---> Package httpd-devel.i386 0:2.2.0-5.1.2 set to be updated
--> Running transaction check
--> Processing Dependency: httpd = 2.2.0-5.1.2 for package: httpd-devel
--> Restarting Dependency Resolution with new changes.
--> Populating transaction set with selected packages. Please wait.
---> Downloading header for httpd to pack into transaction set.
httpd-2.2.0-5.1.2.i386.rp 100% |=========================|  80 kB    00:00
---> Package httpd.i386 0:2.2.0-5.1.2 set to be updated
--> Running transaction check

Dependencies Resolved

=============================================================================
 Package                 Arch       Version          Repository        Size
=============================================================================
Installing:
 httpd-devel             i386       2.2.0-5.1.2      core              160 k
Installing for dependencies:
 httpd                   i386       2.2.0-5.1.2      core              1.1 M

Transaction Summary
=============================================================================
Install      2 Package(s)
Update       0 Package(s)
Remove       0 Package(s)
Total download size: 1.2 M
Is this ok [y/N]: y
Downloading Packages:
(1/2): httpd-devel-2.2.0- 100% |=========================| 160 kB    00:01
(2/2): httpd-2.2.0-5.1.2. 100% |=========================| 1.1 MB    00:07
Running Transaction Test
Finished Transaction Test
Transaction Test Succeeded
Running Transaction
  Installing: httpd                        ######################### [1/2]
  Installing: httpd-devel                  ######################### [2/2]

Installed: httpd-devel.i386 0:2.2.0-5.1.2
Dependency Installed: httpd.i386 0:2.2.0-5.1.2
Complete!
[root@swp2 Desktop]# rpm -qa | grep httpd
httpd-2.2.0-5.1.2
httpd-devel-2.2.0-5.1.2
[root@swp2 Desktop]#

i just forgot :D Somewhere on the google i found that the httpd-devel is required to build libphp5.so so i put some way how to do this ..ee.. sorry

No PHP problem -> Bogus

I know now what is the problem with this all libphp5.so. Everybody has the same problem where using ./configure --with-mysql option and using the source of mysql. The problem is in incorrect version of mysql source. For example I download the >>>Linux (non RPM package) downloads (platform notes) - Linux (x86, glibc-2.2, "standard" is static, gcc)<<< for my Fedora 5 and also try >>>Linux x86 generic RPM (statically linked against glibc 2.2.5) downloads<<< or >>> Linux x86 generic RPM (dynamically linked) downloads <<< where is nothing to configure instead of TRUE SOURCE :D from >>>Source downloads<<< here: http://dev.mysql.com/get/Downloads/MySQL-5.0/mysql-5.0.21.tar.gz/from/ftp://ftp.tpnet.pl/d3/ftp.mysql.com/

Words marked in >>><<< are titles from MySQL pages :D

after download correct version everything is going well:
If u want to use some rpm packages be sure that MySQL-devel*rpm and httpd-devel*rpm are installed

my shortcuts from install:

MySQL
unpack the mysql source where ever you want. Enter to the unpacked dir, then
./configure --prefix=/usr/local/mysql
make
make install
cd /usr/local/mysql
chown -R root .
chown -R mysql var
chgrp -R mysql .
bin/mysqld_safe --user=mysql &
bin/mysqladmin -u root password ?my_password?

remember to copy some of the configuration file to /etc/my.cnf . Look at INSTALL-BINARY file what to do with this

Apache :
unpack httpd-2.2.2.. to /usr/local/httpd-2.2.2.....
ln -s httpd* httpd
cd httpd
./configure --enable-so
make
make install

will create /usr/local/apache2 directory

Look at INSTALL file how to configure apache

then finally PHP

./configure --with-mysql=/usr/local/mysql --with-mssql --with-zlib --with-apxs2=/usr/local/apache2/bin/apxs --with-gd --with-jpeg

mssql require freetds , not needed for mysql working so just remove it if you dont want it. you can remove --with-gd or --with-jpeg if no need to use.

look at INSTALL to see what next to start working php with apache ( or apache with php ) - LoadModule etc.

make
make install

I also experienced with rpm packages. Installed mysql and apache from rpms with devels ( MySQL-devel and httpd-devel )
this first is required to pass the error MySQL headers not found. This second for created libphp5.so in your system.

I'want to say sorry to PHP team for posting it here but so many peoples looking for libphp5.so error and dont know the solution.