ok, i follow all that Howard. i am fiddling on my own laptop which has ubuntu 13.10.
i noticed that 13.10, in addition to php 5.5, includes apache 2.4
have been using apache 2.2 all along. some changes there also.
looks like some of the apache 2.2. config needs to be tweaked for 2.4
some of my 2.2 sites are no longer accessible via apache 2.4