Overriding already-loaded GD extension via .htaccess or dl()?

Hi all, I've searched the PHP manual, Google, and the list archives for an answer to this and come up empty-handed. Here's my situation: My hosting provider runs PHP 4.1.2 under Apache on Linux. Here are the GD configuration options from php.ini: '--with-gd=/usr/local' '--enable-gd-native-ttf' '--with-jpeg-dir=/usr/local/lib' '--with-png-dir=/usr/lib' '--with-zlib' GD version is 1.62, and although they attempted to include TTF support it does not work. I've compiled my own GD 2.0.1 module with Freetype as a shared gd.so extension in hopes that I can override the built-in version provided by my hosting company, but attempting to load it using dl("gd.so") results in numerous errors: *Warning*: Function registration failed - duplicate name - imagearc *Warning*: Function registration failed - duplicate name - imagechar *Warning*: Function registration failed - duplicate name - imagecharup etc. I also tried to use an Apache configuration directive in an .htaccess file: php_value extension_dir ./ php_value extension gd.so Although this causes no errors, the 'extention=gd.so' directive seems to be ignored. Is there anyway to override or unload my ISP's GD extension so that I can use my own, or am I stuck with GD 1.62 without Freetype support? Thanks for any tips/insight! Cheers, -Andy