advanced guestbook posting problems

Hi all,
I am having a bizarre problem. Everything seems to be set up properly. But I cannot submit to the guestbook. The mysql database connections seem to be working properly. I can login to the admin page and change settings there, and they get saved, but it just won't post.
Whats happening is I put in a name and type a message and click the submit button, it looks like it is going to submit for a minute but then it clears all the fields, (like I hit the reset button). And it doesn't add the post to the main page. (It just stays on that page)

I checked all the file permissions
777 on public and tmp
755 on everything else
most of the admin settings are set to default values

I am new to mysql and php, but I thought I set up everything right. Are there any special permissions that the mysql user needs? Or some other special trick I missed when I set up the database?
(by the way REDHAT 7.3 apache and mysql with all the updates)

Thanks for any help

Just as a side note I went in on the mysql> prompt and inserted an entry into the book_data table manually. And when I came back to the guestbook, the entry shows up, but I still cannot sign the guestbook.

I can however go into the admin section of the guestbook and edit the entry, and delete the entry.
This is all very strange to me. I don't understand why I cannot sign the guestbook.
If anyone has any ideas please let me know.

Unfortunately the guest book is on a test server that is not accessable to the internet so I can't point anyone there to see the problem.
I forgot to say this in the first post, the guestbook version is AG2.3.1
Thanks...

dunno, maybe php running in safe mode, or php open base directory restrictions in effect.

but it sounds like some sort of permission setting to the database or soemthing, such as writing to it.

not sure though without seeing it.

Anonymous wrote:dunno, maybe php running in safe mode, or php open base directory restrictions in effect.

but it sounds like some sort of permission setting to the database or soemthing, such as writing to it.

not sure though without seeing it.

php is not running in safe mode. I am looking into "open base directory restrictions", I'm not sure about that one.l

I thought the same thing too about the database permissions but if I can read and write from the GB admin page, why can't I from the addentry page?

It is very strange.
Thanks for the ideas, I am not giving up just yet!