I have a fairly short workaround for this which will allow you to change the file size limit without having to compile your own php, and which will keep your php updated as dreamhost does updates. First you'll need a cgi-bin directory:

mkdir ~/domain.com/cgi-bin/

Then make a file in ~ called php_update containing the following, where 100M contains whatever file size limit you like, and domain.com is appropriately substituted:

In reply to:

---

#/bin/sh

CGIFILE="$HOME/domain.com/cgi-bin/php.cgi"
INIFILE="$HOME/domain.com/cgi-bin/php.ini"

cp /usr/local/bin/php "$CGIFILE"
cp /etc/php/php.ini "$INIFILE"

perl -p -i -e '
s/.*post_max_size.*/post_max_size = 100M/;
s/.*upload_max_filesize.*/upload_max_filesize = 100M/;
' "$INIFILE"

---

Then do:

chmod +x php_update
./php_update

If there are no errors, type:
crontab -e
And then enter the following in the text editor that shows up:

@weekly /home/myusername/php_update

This will update the php binary and config file once a week. Then go to the root of your site and make a .htaccess file which contains the lines:

AddHandler php-cgi .php
Action php-cgi /cgi-bin/php.cgi

Good luck. :)

The Veritas Society