Session save path in Mambo... always "unset"

[DizzyTechnology]

I'm on the sustained server, and I run Mambo Lite (or "Core") on my x10Hosting account. No matte what I do, it always tells me my session save path is unset.

I've tried:

• .htaccess in the Mambo directory with the php_value item. It gives me an error 500 on every page
• php.ini. Mambo still tells me unset, though a phpinfo(); in that directory, under the session header, tells me where it is set (/home/my username/public_html/sessions).
• php_ini(); I stick php_ini("session.save_path", "/home/my username/mambo/sessions") in my configuration.php, which leads to a 777 permissions directory. Mambo stills tells me it is unset, and in the system info sections (which gives me the contents of my configuratiion.php, it shows the following:

• <?php
  ... contents...
  <?php (where the php_ini should be)
  ?>