[expert] apache perl problem

[Bob]

Hi all,
        I have the apache and perl installed on my machine the apache is
1.3.3 from the mandrake cd I uncommented out the two lines in the config
files for the mod_perl . I can see that the server httpd starts fine as
far as I know see my log message below.
        The problem I am having is also the error message in the log below
any ideas what may be wrong or what software I may still need?

when I start I get this

[Mon Mar 15 10:35:04 1999] [notice] Apache/1.3.3 (Unix)  (Red Hat/Linux)
mod_perl/1.15 configured -- resuming normal operations

when I try to open the .pl file I get this

Can't locate object method "request" via package "Apache" at
/home/test/public_html/index.pl line 4.

Just in case you need to see this is the begining of the .pl file

#!/usr/bin/perl
 
if($ENV{SCRIPT_NAME} ne "") {
        my $r = Apache->request; #this is line 4 where it fails
        $r->content_type("text/html");
        $r->send_http_header(); 
} 

use DBI; 
use strict;
use vars qw($dbh);

Thanks for your help on this
Bob