Help installing PHP and Apache on Linux (Ubuntu 9.04)

Hello guys, i am having some trouble installing them on linux. i installed linux yesterday and they didn't asked me to set a root password, only for the account that i use (nero), howeover i am able to update my system and so on with that user. i have installed apache, owrking, howerover i can't create archives or edit the default index.html that comes with apache, its says that i don't have permission to do that (i tried it and i just cant) and since i don't have the root password, i can't touch on it. i tried to install php, the make && make install command isn't working, its says that don't have a make file (i download the latest version from php.netsite, the tar.gz one) trying the install command (using install -p /home/nero/php-5.3.0/ /usr/local/php/ it isnt working too any hints? thanks