Command Line Interface; MediaWiki upgrade failure

[dcsquard]

I am running the following versions of software.

PHP: 4.3.4 (apache2handler)
MySQL: 4.0.18-Max
MediaWiki: 1.5.3
Linux: 2.6.5-7.267-s390x #1 SMP Wed Jun 21 10:50:51

I have searched the php faq and other sites for help in debugging CLI PHP code but I am in way over my head.  The code for the refreshLinks in MediaWiki is very complicated (to me at least) and I need some help in stepping through the scripts.

Also, I don't see any errors from PHP or MySQL that indicates those processes are failing.  I believe they are running fine.  As I was instructed, I followed the instructions to upgrade my MediaWiki from version 1.4.x to 1.5.3 and it all went well.  But now I am getting the following error.  The mail list supporting MediaWiki advised me to update "all" my files.  I don't know what more I could have done because I followed their instructions explictly -- and many many times. 

Sorry for the long introduction but I just want to explain why I am sending a message to this forum because it appears that I have been given some php code that doesn't work and I don't know how to trace throught the code and find where the bad data is that the program fails with.  I have tried to put in "print" statements but most of the time it returns "object" and I can't really follow the code.  I see the lines that this text points to but that doesn't really say anything to me either.  How can I trace this code and find where my problem is located.  I can zip the code up and send it if necessary.

TIA - Doug

--- error text follows ---

Tag conditions not met. This should never happen and is a bug.

Backtrace:

    * GlobalFunctions.php line 451 calls wfbacktrace()
    * Sanitizer.php line 670 calls wfdebugdiebacktrace()
    * Sanitizer.php line 552 calls sanitizer::gettagattributecallback()
    * Parser.php line 654 calls sanitizer::fixtagattributes()
    * Parser.php line 783 calls parser::dotablestuff()
    * Parser.php line 193 calls parser::internalparse()
    * OutputPage.php line 254 calls parser::parse()
    * OutputPage.php line 245 calls outputpage::addwikitexttitle()
    * refreshLinks.inc line 89 calls outputpage::addwikitext()
    * refreshLinks.inc line 55 calls fixlinksfromarticle()
    * refreshLinks.php line 22 calls refreshlinks()

--- end of error text ---