how to disable php safe mode on a shared host

When deploying a Drupal site on a shared hosting environment running apache/php, chances are php’s safe mode is turned on.

If you’re trying to get flashvideo up and running, you’ll probably run into a problem when Drupal’s cron job tries to run ffmpeg to convert your uploaded video:

“Cannot execute using backquotes in Safe Mode”

Solution: turn off safe mode by modifying your httpd.conf file:

1. find your vhost entry

2. add to that vhost entry: php_admin_flag safe_mode Off

Problem solved.