note 14752 added to function.mkdir.php

question: is there a setting and/or configuration needed to be set in php to allow php to control the creation of directories for http upload of files? No matter how I set the file/directory ownership and perms manually on the server, php complains of "Warning: MkDir failed (No such file or directory)" ...I check that that directory exists before I even attempt to create a sub-directory. When I create the subdirectory I get the warning. Also when I check if the directory is_writeable, it comes back that it is not, even though the perms/ownerships/umaks say on the server say that it is. Any help would be greatly appreciated! I am using debian and php4. http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.mkdir.php