Problem installing PEAR

I don't know why the version of PHP 4.2.1 I have doesn't have PEAR already (there is no "--without-pear" in the configure params) However, when I try to install using the web-installer, I get an error message saying "Extracting installer..................ok 'xml' PHP extension is not installed" I'd guess it's falling over trying to do :- "$tarball['PEAR'] = 'package.xml'" but seeing as how I'm just an admin, not a PHP developer, I couldn't really say. Any help would be much appreciated. PS, this is a production machine, and it is NOT possible to re-install/re-compile PHP. The Apache/PHP setup was created via RPMfor Mandrake Linux, and it was "tricky" to say the least. I was hoping to be able to just untar some php files, possibly compile a couple of shared modules ... Rich Armstrong Primulavej 3 3600 Frederikssund Denmark mailto:richa@richardarmstrong.co.uk tel:+45 47388804