<p>when i point my browser to <code>http://localhost/phpmyadmin</code>, instead of showing me its front page, it comes up with save as dialog.</p>

<p>I'm running:
Apache/2.2.3 (Debian) PHP/5.2.0-8+etch13 Server </p>

<p>I've reinstalled both apache2 and php5.
After re-install i don't have httpd.conf file, how can i get it back? Is there a standard file which i can just copy into /etc/apache2?</p>

<p>I did a locate httpd.conf and the only file i got was the empty file i have under /etc/apache2/ which i made.</p>

Did you configure the php extension to send an http header?
In httpd.conf:
AddType application/x-httpd-php .php
EDIT
The file is not necessarily named
```
httpd.conf
```
, that's just the default name.  Try searching for other configuration files in the Apache directory -- the extension probably is
```
.conf
```
but it might be something else... 
If you used apt-get on debian to install apache2, try
```
/etc/apache2/apche2.conf
```
/EDIT