[isf-wifidog] Distro suggestions

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I've finally realized that to get WiFiDog to run on CentOS 4.3, I'll
have to completely recompile PHP5 to get MHash and MCrypt extensions.

That seems daunting, and thus I'm considering another distro that
might already have these built in to the PHP module.

Am I being a sissy and recompiling PHP5 isn't that hard?
If so, how do I duplicate the compile options and directories that are
used in CentOS? (How can I learn the compile directives used to create
the CentOS 4.3 binaries so I can duplicate these, adding the
mhash/mcrypt options.)

If I am right to be apprehensive in recompiling PHP, what distro
should I use that most easily supports WiFiDog.

TIA
-Greg