PHP - C And C++ Without An Ide On Ubuntu 14.04

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http://www.phpfreaks.com/forums/index.php?topic=322565.0

Please tell me how  to connect php and mysql in ubuntu 14.04

Code: [Select]
<?php
$myServer = "<remote ip>";
$myUser = "<username>";
$myPass = "<password>";
$myDB = "FAP2"; 
//create an instance of the ADO connection object
$conn = new COM ("ADODB.Connection")
  or die("Cannot start ADO");
 
?>

No error messages reported, but page "dies" at this point.
The ubuntu machine can see the sql machine, but yet this is happening.

I've been doing a lot of studying of Linux lately. I enabled the root acount to do some work. When done, even if I logout, close the terminal, or reboot, I can still access the root account without supplying the root password. So what am I not understanding or what am I doing wrong? I don't really need to disable the root account, but this is just a learning experience, and I'm not understanding why I still have access. See below:     # I needed to enable root access for something skunkbad:~$ sudo passwd root   # I did what I needed to do skunkbad:~$ sudo -i root@ubuntu-Inspiron-3647:~#   # I logout from root root@ubuntu-Inspiron-3647:~# logout   # I disable the root access per instructions from many internet references skunkbad:~$ sudo passwd -dl root   # Root access is still available, even if I close and reopen the terminal skunkbad:~$ sudo -i   # I logout from root root@ubuntu-Inspiron-3647:~# logout   # Trying to access root via su prompts for password, and old password is wrong skunkbad:~$ su Password: su: Authentication failure

My setup: (everything on a local network)
Web server: Ubuntu Server 8.10 -- Workgroup
File server: Windows Server 2008 x64 -- domain
Test server: Win 2000 running WAMP -- domain

I'm trying to run the code snippet below. $file is a file on the File server above. It definitely exists.
Running the code below on the Test server works perfectly. But the file cannot be found when running from the Web server.
$file = '//server/share/file.txt';
if (file_exists($file))
echo 'yay!';
else
echo 'error';

What with the safe mode considerations, I've also tried to add:
ini_set('safe_mode', 'Off'); to no effect. And since file, and fopen similarly not work, I'm pretty sure it's not that either.

The File & Test servers are on the same Windows domain, but that's definitely not the reason. I tried the code on a file on a Linux computer in the Workgroup (where the Web server is) with the same results: Test server works, Web server does not.

Please advise; I'm really lost.