So I've never run into such a problem like this before. I can only call it an evil server. I thought maybe data corruption, but that wouldn't account for the mystery.
I have VPS which I got sometime last month and no matter what I do; I can't configure it. It's like the thing is possessed or something. Installing a working copy of LAMP is something I can do in my sleep and yet nothing works on this server. It's as if it doesn't want to obey ..... Well anything.
For example, I installed Debian Linux on it and used only the apt-get command to install everything. Very basic, nothing configured out of the norm. Yet php files would not run, no matter what configuration I tried. Had 2 administrator look at it and even they couldn't figure it out. Repeated the whole process on another VPS and it worked flawlessly.
Tried Direct Admin. Which is an automatic install that requires no configuration except for user name, password, and domain name. Point and click. Could not get it to run without issue. Last issue I couldn't even change the password. But did everything exactly the same on another VPS without issue.
Installed a pre-configured, pre-imaged copy of cPanel. Can't go wrong. Except it would not function on this VPS, but would on another.
Anyone have any clues?