ld.so.conf (in /etc on my box) contains a list of dirs that ld (gnu dynamic linker) checks for shared objects/libraries, ELF, etc. You won't have any control of that if you're >>virtual-hosting. Try doing:
LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/home/path/to/mcrypt/lib:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH
export $LD_LIBRARY_PATH
which only affects your environment. That might do the trick.
When I do that (I assume when I'm in the php-4.1.2 dir, and assuming I don't need to do anything beforehand) it gives me an error: "bash: export: `/home/path/to/mcrypt/lib:': not a >valid identifier"
whoops - that should have been:
export $LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$LD_LIBRARY_PATH:/home/to/mcrypt/lib
sorry 'bout that. Of course, that's just the syntax there. i'm still not sure that that's what'll solve it ...
/b