I don't know if this will help, if you had the same problem with drupal then I what I have to say next will make sense, if not then it will likely be another problem.

this error came up for me because I was using php 5.3 rather than 5.2 ---> Drupal is supposed to be okay with 5.3 now but there are a number of modules that Drupal requires that have not been updated to work on 5.3 yet, so you will get all sorts of errors popping up.

what I learnt from the whole experience was: new is not always better in the world of Linux (unless you know what you are doing)

hope this helps
good luck!