I have a clean install of a CentOs with php 5.2.13. In php.ini that is loaded and present in the header of phpinfo() I have
safe_mode=off
in the phpinfo() information I have
// local value - safe_mode: On
// master value - safe_mode: off
the php file has only a phpinfo() function. I am still looking for vhost file to see if any directives are there overwriting this, but still then any sugggestions?
Look for "Additional ini files parsed" in phpinfo() output. This setting can also be changed in the Apache config (including .htaccess files).