Cannot load mcrypt extension

Question

phpMyAdmin reports Cannot load mcrypt extension. I'm running Centos 6.2 x86_64 with PHP 5.3.3 and Zend Engine v2.3.0.

This is what I've checked so far:

1. php.ini is in /usr/local/zend/etc/php.ini as reported by phpinfo();.

   PHP version
   [root@localhost etc]# php -v
   PHP 5.3.3 (cli) (built: Jul  3 2012 16:53:21) 
   Copyright (c) 1997-2010 The PHP Group
   Zend Engine v2.3.0, Copyright (c) 1998-2010 Zend Technologies with Xdebug v2.1.4, Copyright (c) 2002-2012, by Derick Rethans
   [root@localhost etc]#
   

2. Matching mcrypt and mbstring libraries installed:

   [root@localhost etc]# rpm -qa | grep -P 'mcrypt|mbstring'
   libmcrypt-devel-2.5.7-1.2.el6.rf.x86_64
   php-5.3-mcrypt-zend-server-5.3.14-1.x86_64
   php-5.3-mbstring-zend-server-5.3.14-1.x86_64
   libmcrypt-2.5.7-1.2.el6.rf.x86_64
   php-mbstring-5.3.3-14.el6_3.x86_64
   [root@localhost etc]# 
   

3. Log files are clean. I skipped the output of access_log because it is long and there is nothing of interest.

   [root@localhost etc]# tail /var/log/messages
   Jul 22 03:28:01 localhost kernel: imklog 4.6.2, log source = /proc/kmsg started.
   Jul 22 03:28:01 localhost rsyslogd: [origin software="rsyslogd" swVersion="4.6.2" x-    pid="1455" x-info="http://www.rsyslog.com"] (re)start
   Jul 22 07:46:35 localhost yum[11527]: Installed: libmcrypt-2.5.7-1.2.el6.rf.x86_64
   Jul 22 07:46:35 localhost yum[11527]: Installed: libmcrypt-devel-2.5.7-1.2.el6.rf.x86_64
   Jul 22 07:58:00 localhost yum[11817]: Installed: php-mbstring-5.3.3-14.el6_3.x86_64
   [root@localhost etc]#
   [root@localhost etc]# tail -n 5 /var/log/httpd/error_log 
   [Sun Jul 22 08:37:19 2012] [notice] SELinux policy enabled; httpd running as context unconfined_u:system_r:httpd_t:s0
   [Sun Jul 22 08:37:19 2012] [notice] suEXEC mechanism enabled (wrapper: /usr/sbin/suexec)
   [Sun Jul 22 08:37:19 2012] [notice] Digest: generating secret for digest authentication ...
   [Sun Jul 22 08:37:19 2012] [notice] Digest: done
   [Sun Jul 22 08:37:19 2012] [notice] Apache/2.2.15 (Unix) DAV/2 PHP/5.3.14 configured -- resuming normal operations
   [root@localhost etc]#
   

4. The shared objects mcrypt.so and mbstring.so are in the extension_dir. I got extension_dir from php_info(); and then listed the directory contents. Both shared objects present.

5. I've done multiple restarts of httpd.

6. Disabling SELinux does not fix the problem.

Yeah, I know I'm running as root. It is on a local VM without external network access. My goal is to document and resolve this issue.

References

1. question-defense.com
2. StackOverflow "PhpMyAdmin install errors"
3. StackOverflow "Failed to proper setup php..."