I have wracked my brain for hours–both before and after the holiday weekend–and still can’t figure out how to install the GD library into PHP5 on my Mac running OSX 10.5. I have tried about fourteen tutorials, pounding God-knows-what into the Terminal (perhaps part of the problem, you might say) and still NO GD SUPPORT. Things like ProjectPier won’t run properly without the GD library (PP won’t even install without it).

The only solutions I can find so far are to either stop using Apple’s built-in PHP5 and compile and install some package like MAMP, (which isn’t ideal for me–and also didn’t even work for me); or set the computer on fire and see if it works after it melts into a soggy mess on the floor.

I don’t understand why this has to be so hard. I even tried the step-by-step instructions at this wacky-looking pink and purple blog written by a toucan sitting under a rainbow. I got no errors and everything seemed fine, but PHP still reported no GD library and ProjectPier is still telling me I’m really, really lame.

Tangent: I’ve visited every forum on the Internet at least twice now, and I’ve noticed that a lot of people lack the common courtesy to return to a given forum after the information there has helped them. You see a lot of seemingly open-ended discussions, but the truth must be that most of those issues have been resolved, or else there would still be someone there asking for help, right? Unless those people have all set their machines on fire and found that to really be the answer after all…

I’ll try it on my laptop first.