I used the perfect SuSE 10.1 setup but I can't get php started. I changed the httpd.conf file and the apache2 file to look like how it does on the site. When I run the 'ps aux' command on my server, there are no php processes running!! Does this mean php is not running??
No, you never have PHP processes. PHP is run with modhp, the only thing you see are apache processes. Have you checked the PHP checkbox in the website you created in ISPConfig and copied your PHP scripts in the website root that ISPConfig created for your site?
Oh okay. I didn't install ISPConfig on my server because I didn't think I needed it. I don't need it do I??
No, you dont need ISPConfig, if you dont want to manage webspaces and you know enough about apache configuration to write the config files manually. But you have posted in the ISPConfig installation forum The Howto disables PHP globally, so ISPConfig can manage it on a per web basis. If you undo the steps from the howto where you commented out lines in the apache configuration, PHP will be activated again globally. Font forget to restart apache after you changed the configuration.
The SuSE 10.1 tutorial makes a difference in the Apache section whether you want to install ISPConfig or not. Have a look at that section again.