Thanks! I was able to follow your directions for yum updates I needed. I followed up with another install of NIDB.
stdout is pasted below to the cmds you suggested...looks like I'm still missing a key piece (mysqli)?
Any additional advice?
Jenifer

[root@localhost bin]# mysql -uroot -ppassword
Welcome to the MySQL monitor.  Commands end with ; or \g.
Your MySQL connection id is 3
Server version: 5.1.61 Source distribution

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Type 'help;' or '\h' for help. Type '\c' to clear the current input statement.

mysql>

phpMyAdmin - Error

The [url=http://localhost/phpMyAdmin/url.php?url=http%3A%2F%2Fphp.net%2Fmanual%2Fen%2Fbook.mysqli.php&lang=en&collation_connection=utf8_general_ci&token=5a5eb95d6faba9f71cf4953144fae94e]mysqli[/url]
extension is missing. Please check your PHP configuration.
href="Documentation.html#faqmysql" target="documentation">class="icon ic_b_help" />