GD 2 after GD 1.8? What the hell?

Does anybody know the "trick" to upgrading GD lib from 1.8 to 2b and having PHP recognize the upgrade and using it on the install. I tried everything I could find on it, I'm beginning to think I'm the only person who has a hard time installing gd lib 2. HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! -dave ps - what i've tried 1. configure php with gd, pointing to its install ir. --with-gd=../gd-2.0.1/ 2. changed line in GD lib 2 Makefile... LIBS=libgd.a -lpng -lz -ljpeg -lfreetype -lm then typed 'make libgd.a', compiled successfully, then did part 1 from above. Nope. 3. Tried going into /usr/lib/ and deleted all libgd files referencing 1.8 and did step 2 again. 4. Said "screw it", waited a day and tried it all over again, just to make sure.