[imp] IMP 3.2.1/HORDE 2.2.3 spelling checker issue. HELLLP!

[Lord Apollyon]

I've explored this over and over, rebuilt PHP thrice, aspell twice, and
checked and re-checked file/directory permissions.  I'm using the latest
RELEASE HORDE/IMP/TURBA/KRONOLITH application suite.  Everything's installed
and running smoothly.

I'm using the following stuff:

PHP 4.3.2 with latest ZendOptimizer (verified as operational in phpinfo())
(built '--with-pspell' not aspell, as per instructions on latest PHP/aspell
documention)

Apache 1.3.27
aspell-0.50.3 library, compiled and installed into /usr
aspell-en-0.51-0, installed into /usr/lib/aspell
/usr/share/aspell:
drwxr-xr-x    2 root     root         4096 Jul 28 02:01 aspell/
(with all files 0755)
   4 -rw-r--r--    1 root           72 Jul 27 22:58 english.alias
   4 -rw-r--r--    1 root          113 Jul 27 22:58 en_US.multi
   4 -rw-r--r--    1 root           94 Jul 27 22:58 en_US-w-accents.multi
 156 -rw-r--r--    1 root       155648 Jul 27 22:58 en_US-only.rws
   4 -rw-r--r--    1 root          113 Jul 27 22:58 en_GB.multi
   4 -rw-r--r--    1 root           94 Jul 27 22:58 en_GB-w-accents.multi
 148 -rw-r--r--    1 root       147456 Jul 27 22:58 en_GB-only.rws
   4 -rw-r--r--    1 root          113 Jul 27 22:58 en_CA.multi
   4 -rw-r--r--    1 root           94 Jul 27 22:58 en_CA-w-accents.multi
 148 -rw-r--r--    1 root       147456 Jul 27 22:58 en_CA-only.rws
   4 -rw-r--r--    1 root          132 Jul 27 22:58 en.multi
3788 -rw-r--r--    1 root      3874816 Jul 27 22:58 en-only.rws
   4 -rw-r--r--    1 root           75 Jul 27 22:58 canadian.alias
   4 -rw-r--r--    1 root           85 Jul 27 22:58 canadian-w-accents.alias
   4 -rw-r--r--    1 root           75 Jul 27 22:58 british.alias
   4 -rw-r--r--    1 root           85 Jul 27 22:58 british-w-accents.alias
   4 -rw-r--r--    1 root           75 Jul 27 22:58 american.alias
   4 -rw-r--r--    1 root           85 Jul 27 22:58 american-w-accents.alias

I have Turba 1.1 and Kronolith fully integrated and operational on my site.
 All functions work properly, I'm using a mySQL back-end.

phpinfo() returns:

PSpell Support 	enabled

in my /horde/imp/config/conf.php I have the following:

$conf['utils']['spellchecker'] = 'aspell -e';

I am using SAFE MODE, and have "aspell" and "echo" installed into my
safe_mode_bin_dir.  I checked my webserver logs for any failed exec's, none
appear.

PROBLEM: I never get any spell-check corrections/detection of misspellings.
 The ICON for the spell check option appears, but clicking it does NOTHING.

What is the story?  I've inserted debugging code to emit the actual command
passed to the shell, and verified it works fine from the command line.

It amounts to:

echo "I speled somethin wronly." | aspell -e -a -d american

When I enter that on the command line, I get output which suggests flawless
operation of aspell.

@(#) International Ispell Version 3.1.20 (but really Aspell 0.50.3)
*
& speled 31 2: spelled, spieled, speed, spilled, spoiled, spooled, suppled
& somethin 9 9: something, some thin, some-thin, smoothing, somethings
& wronly 30 18: wrongly, wrinkly, wrong, only, brownly, pronely, Ronny

When I "su www" and execute the commands from my safa_mode_dir, I also get
output.  It's not a directory permissions issue.

I've tried it with the default en_US as well as en_GB (UK-English) settings.
 No dice.  I've granted PHP permission to alter LANG, LANGUAGE, and TZ, thus
silencing the problems within HORDE/IMP about such environment vars.

What is the deal here?  What am I missing?

I've used GCC-3.2.2+stack-protector to build all libraries and apache
bins...  Everything else works just fine.  aspell (appears) to work fine. 
I've even stuck . ' 2>&1' at the tail end of the command line passed to
exec() just for paranoia.  No effect.

My users are highly keen to use this feature, it would seem on the surface,
to be easily installed.  Hellllllllllllllllllllp!

There are no log entries, coredumps, or any excretia to allow me a hint as
to what's going on.  The function simply doesn't work.

=Lord Apollyon=