I was able to accomplish what I was after by putting php_admin_flag engine Off at the top of the mod_suphp.c. Also I had to make sure I used suPHP_Engine off by default.
End result:
<IfModule mod_suphp.c>
<Directory /home/>
php_admin_flag engine Off
AddType application/x-httpd-php .php .php3 .php4 .php5
suPHP_AddHandler application/x-httpd-php
suPHP_Engine on
suPHP_ConfigPath /home/shared/
</Directory>
</IfModule>
Just for those wondering, this is what I had for my /home/shared/php.ini they will be every /home users php.ini unless I specify differently in vhosts:
allow_url_fopen = Off
display_errors = On
display_startup_errors = On
log_errors = On
error_reporting = E_ALL
error_log = "/var/log/apache2/php_user_errors.log"
expose_php = Off
magic_quotes_sybase = Off
register_globals = Off
open_basedir = "/home:/tmp"
short_open_tag = On
session.save_path = "/tmp"
disable_functions = "phpinfo, apache_child_terminate,apache_get_modules,apache_get_version,apache_getenv,apache_note,apache_setenv,curl_exec,curl_multi_exec,dir,disk_free_space,diskfreespace,dl,eval,exec,fsockopen,highlight_file,ini_alter,ini_restore,ini_set,openlog,parse_ini_file,passthru,pclose,popen,proc_close,proc_get_status,proc_nice,proc_open,proc_terminate,readfile,set_time_limit,shell_exec,show_source,stream_socket_server,symlink,system,virtual"
Sounds like the problem is with mod_jk.
The stable package for squeeze is libapache-mod-jk (1:1.2.30-1squeeze1) which was updated from lenny's package libapache-mod-jk (1:1.2.26-2+lenny1)
There is a confirmed Debian package bug report that after upgrade mod_jk won't connect to tomcats but is is supposed to be fixed in the latest version.
Try upgrading it with apt-get and see if it gives you the new version if not do apt-get install libapache-mod-jk and choose to keep your existing config files if it asks. (Probably should back up any config files before doing the upgrades.
Also did you reboot the server after you upgraded? When I went from lenny to squeeze the kernel didn't upgrade until I rebooted.
Best Answer
If you used the CGI version of PHP, then you would not need to re-compile. Since you want to use mod_php you need re-compile PHP, and PHP modules, any other Apache modules, and basically anything that links into Apache/PHP.