custom php.ini

Hello all, In short, I'm trying to set my uploads_tmp_dir variable, as my hosting provider has it set ot the default NULL (I'm using dreamhost). I tried setting my own php.ini as instructed exactly on their wiki (http://wiki.dreamhost.com/PHP.ini) but doing so causes PHP to essentially die. phpinfo () gives a blank screen, $_SERVER['PHP_SELF'] isn't recognized, and so on. I don't *think* it's the actual php.ini file, as even using one identical to what they're already using doesn't work. what I did: 1) made a cgi-bin dir under my domain directory, and copied the server's php.ini file to it 2) created a script wrapper in the cgi-bin folder with: #!/bin/sh exec /dh/cgi-system/php5.cgi $* 3) chmod 755 $HOME/[my domain root]/cgi-bin chmod 755 $HOME/[my domain root]/cgi-bin/php-wrapper.cgi chmod 640 $HOME/[my domain root]/cgi-bin/php.ini 4) added a .htaccess to my domain root, with: Options +ExecCGI AddHandler php5-cgi .php Action php-cgi /cgi-bin/php-wrapper.cgi Action php5-cgi /cgi-bin/php-wrapper.cgi any pointers? thanks