Setting up apache and php

Im new to linux and its been a steep learning curve but im stuck and was hoping someone could clear it up.

I have apache and php installed but php wont load any of the extensions and it reports that each on could not be loaded because of an undefined symbol.

I noticed building from source seems to be a common activity on linux and absent from windows. Do i need to recompile these extensions from the php source. I can jus try it but im just guessing and going in circles.