I got php compiled with mysql and gd and it seems to have worked. I'm getting the pthread_mutex_unlock/destroy/lock/init errors in the log file but the images are being resized using the gd libraries so it's good. I can track down the problems at my leisure and not affect the folks who use the forum on the server.
Of course if you have an idea on the pthreads issue that I thought I fixed, I'd be happy to try and fix it
Thanks for listening.
Carl