The dreaded 500 internal server error when enabling php 5 in Media Temple dv 3.0

Media Temple's dv 3.0 service by default comes with php4 enabled, but there are instructions for turning on upgrading to php5 here: http://kb.mediatemple.net/article.php?id=260

However, I ran into what appears to be a common problem... a "500 internal server error" on all php pages after the upgrade.

Here's a breakdown of the steps I recommend taking to resolve the issue:

• Use the "suexec" method as described in the article
• Make sure the php script, the ~/bin folder, and the ~/bin/php5 file are all the same user, and all the "psacln" group. Try these commands from within the domain's home folder (usually /var/www/vhosts/DOMAIN/):
  chown -R USERNAME bin chgrp -R psacln bin I wouldn't recomend running the chown/chgrp commands recursively (-R) on the httpdocs folder, because PLESK uses the httpdocs/statstics folder.
• Make sure the ~/bin and the ~/bin/php5 files are both set to permission level 755 chmod -R 755 bin

That should do the trick. The problem I ran into was PLESK 8.2.1 already creates the bin/ folder, and assigns it to the psaserv group, when it should be set to the psacln group.