So I built, tested and made apache with: $ ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/apache $ make $ make install $ usr/locall/apache/bin/apachectl start (started fine)
try letting mod_perl do the heavy lifting - mod_perl will build both itself and apache if you let it.
after unzipping both apache and mod_perl sources to the same local root (say, ~jeff/src) just cd to the mod_perl directory and...
edit makepl_args.mod_perl:
APACHE_SRC=../apache-1.3/src APACHE_PREFIX=/usr/local/apache DO_HTTPD=1 USE_APACI=1 EVERYTHING=1 APACI_ARGS=--enable-module=rewrite APACI_ARGS=--enable-module=so (add whatever modules you want here)
then (as non-root user) $ perl Makefile.PL $ make $ make test
and you should be good to go.
in addition to the perl.apache.org install doc, this might help:
http://www.modperlcookbook.org/chapters/ch01.pdf
HTH
--Geoff