problem with socket module on redhat 6.2

[Dan Stromberg]

The problem:

seki-strombrg> /dcs/packages/python-2.1/bin/python
Python 2.1 (#1, May 21 2001, 15:50:31) 
[GCC 2.95.2 19991024 (release)] on linux2
Type "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import socket
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in ?
  File "/dcs/packages/python-2.1/lib/python2.1/socket.py", line 41, in
  ?
    from _socket import *
ImportError: libssl.so.0: cannot load shared object file: No such file
or directory
>>> 


seki-root> ls -l /usr/lib/libssl*
-rw-r--r--   1 root     root       250766 Mar 14 09:06
/usr/lib/libssl.a
lrwxrwxrwx   1 root     root           15 Apr 24 17:07
/usr/lib/libssl.so -> libssl.so.0.9.6
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root     root       203837 Mar 14 09:06
/usr/lib/libssl.so.0.9.6
lrwxrwxrwx   1 root     root           15 Apr 24 17:08
/usr/lib/libssl.so.1 -> libssl.so.0.9.6



>From strace'ing the python 2.1 executable during import socket:

open("/lib/i686/mmx/libssl.so.0", O_RDONLY) = -1 ENOENT (No such file
or directory)
stat64("/lib/i686/mmx", 0xbfffca98)     = -1 ENOENT (No such file or
directory)
open("/lib/i686/libssl.so.0", O_RDONLY) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or
directory)
stat64("/lib/i686", {st_mode=S_IFDIR|0755, st_size=4096, ...}) = 0
open("/lib/mmx/libssl.so.0", O_RDONLY)  = -1 ENOENT (No such file or
directory)
stat64("/lib/mmx", 0xbfffca98)          = -1 ENOENT (No such file or
directory)
open("/lib/libssl.so.0", O_RDONLY)      = -1 ENOENT (No such file or
directory)
stat64("/lib", {st_mode=S_IFDIR|0755, st_size=4096, ...}) = 0
open("/usr/lib/i686/mmx/libssl.so.0", O_RDONLY) = -1 ENOENT (No such
file or directory)
stat64("/usr/lib/i686/mmx", 0xbfffca98) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or
directory)
open("/usr/lib/i686/libssl.so.0", O_RDONLY) = -1 ENOENT (No such file
or directory)
stat64("/usr/lib/i686", 0xbfffca98)     = -1 ENOENT (No such file or
directory)
open("/usr/lib/mmx/libssl.so.0", O_RDONLY) = -1 ENOENT (No such file
or directory)
stat64("/usr/lib/mmx", 0xbfffca98)      = -1 ENOENT (No such file or
directory)
open("/usr/lib/libssl.so.0", O_RDONLY)  = -1 ENOENT (No such file or
directory)
stat64("/usr/lib", {st_mode=S_IFDIR|0755, st_size=24576, ...}) = 0


Why would it not be finding the /usr/lib/libssl.so.0, that presumably
the configure script believed was present?

I could turn off ssl in my build I guess, though it sounds kind of
nice to have.

TIA.
-- 
Dan Stromberg                                               UCI/NACS/DCS