installing hardened php

[ripetungi]

I am trying to upload a mysql db to a webserver, and have missing parameters - using large number of columns and have found that I have to change the variables of the columns.  From searching on the web - understand that need to install a hardenedphp patch to change the variables.  Am using php 4 on Apache 1 on Mac OS X.  Am very new to php and sql, and learning as I go along. Have apache up and running (access to db on local host working fine) but have download the patch but don't know how to install it.  Is there a simple tutorial I can follow or can anyone help, either with the installing of the patch or with the missing parameters?
The webserver returned the below reasons for missing parameters -
In config.inc.php, try to leave the $cfg['PmaAbsoluteUri']directive empty.
Maybe you have a broken PHP installation or you need to upgrade your Zend Optimizer. See http://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=31134.
If you are using Hardened PHP with the ini directive varfilter.max_request_variables set to the default (200) or another low value, you could get this error if your table has a high number of columns. Adjust this setting accordingly. (Thanks to Klaus Dorninger for the hint).
In the php.ini directive arg_separator.input, a value of ";" will cause this error. Replace it with "&;".
Again being new not sure how to access these helps in order to change them.
Can anyone help please.
Cheers