mod_authn_dbm.so and dbmmanage are not playing well together, causing [500] Internal Server Error

[Bill Hernandez]

Problem with mod_authn_dbm.so

I have been using the standard flat file created by htpasswd, but  
tried to switch to mod_authn_dbm.so , So I went to http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.0/programs/dbmmanage.html 
  and followed the plan...

Using the dbmmanage that MacPorts installed with apache2, I created  
some user password records.

dbmmanage does not have a way to specify AuthDBMType, so I created the  
records and then tried to figure out what type of records dbmmanage  
was actually generating by trying the five AuthDBMType(s) below, but  
none of them worked.

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The log showed after the last restart :
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[Wed Dec 24 21:15:47 2008] [notice] Apache/2.2.9 (Unix) mod_ssl/2.2.9  
OpenSSL/0.9.7l DAV/2 PHP/5.2.6 configured -- resuming normal operations

/www/etc/dbmpasswd: unexpected file type or format

[Wed Dec 24 21:16:02 2008] [error] [client ::1] (120022)APR does not  
understand this error code: could not open dbm (type DB) auth file: / 
www/etc/dbmpasswd
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The permissions are set the same as ones for the standard flat file.
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Displaying the records at the terminal :
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$ path="/www/etc/dbmpasswd" ; dbmmanage $path view
---> shows all the user password records

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The virtual host file contains
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<Directory /www/secure>
	AllowOverride None
	Order Allow,Deny
	Allow from 127.0.0.1
	Allow from localhost
	Satisfy All

	AuthType basic
	AuthName "private area"
	AuthBasicProvider dbm
	AuthDBMType default

	# I tried all five of the AuthDBMType(s) below
	# [500] INTERNAL SERVER ERROR

	# AuthDBMType default
	# AuthDBMType DB
	# AuthDBMType GDBM
	# AuthDBMType NDBM
	# AuthDBMType SDBM

	AuthDBMUserFile /www/etc/dbmpasswd
	Require valid-user
</Directory>

These are the modules that deal with auth that are installed

LoadModule authn_file_module modules/mod_authn_file.so
LoadModule authn_dbm_module modules/mod_authn_dbm.so
LoadModule authn_anon_module modules/mod_authn_anon.so
LoadModule authn_dbd_module modules/mod_authn_dbd.so
LoadModule authn_default_module modules/mod_authn_default.so
LoadModule authz_host_module modules/mod_authz_host.so
LoadModule authz_groupfile_module modules/mod_authz_groupfile.so
LoadModule authz_user_module modules/mod_authz_user.so
LoadModule authz_dbm_module modules/mod_authz_dbm.so
LoadModule authz_owner_module modules/mod_authz_owner.so
# LoadModule authnz_ldap_module modules/mod_authnz_ldap.so
LoadModule authz_default_module modules/mod_authz_default.so
LoadModule auth_basic_module modules/mod_auth_basic.so
LoadModule auth_digest_module modules/mod_auth_digest.so

Any ideas what else to try ?