I did a search on the error kicked back by the php compile (mutex threads...) and found a post where CFLAGS='-pthreads' and then recompile the gd lib. I did that and then tried to recompile php and it passed the configure step successfully building the gd test. So that might have fixed it.
Thought I'd post the potential answer for a google search
More posts as I finish (cross fingers)
Carl