Hi,
Mandrake is based on Redhat so, for rpm installed stuff, they mostly start the same way. When you install a binary (pre-compiled) redhat rpm of apache it puts a sysv init script called 'httpd' into /etc/rc.d/init.d and that accepts arguments of 'start', 'stop', 'restart', etc. In the first few lines of the script is a comment entry something like this :
# chkconfig: 345 20 80
(actual may be different for httpd)
This indicates the default runlevels and start and stop priorties. When you install via rpm the install script would do a :
# /sbin/chkconfig --add httpd
That reads those defaults so, out of the box, a redhat apache rpm should automatically start when the system reaches the stated run-levels. If you want to change the 'start' runlevels you'd do (as root) :
# /sbin/chkconfig --level 345 httpd on
(example to turn on at runlevels 3,4 & 5)
To stop /start without changing runlevels you'd call the script manually. For example (as root) :
# /etc/rc.d/init.d/httpd restart
So, unless you especially want to build from source or need a newer version than redhat has (e.g. to try Apache 2.0 beta), I generally recommend installing from a rpm built for you particular version of linux rather than from tar.gz files. The latest redhat one is --> ftp://rpmfind.net/linux/redhat/updates/7.2/en/os/i386/apache-1.3.22-2.i386.rpm .
Just download that somewhere, change directory to the same place then do as root:
# rpm -Uvh apache-*.rpm
(and assuming no dependency errors.....)
# /etc/rc.d/init.d/httpd start
The rpm install script should have set it to autostart as described above. It seems kind of odd if you had to set it manually - it shouldn't be necessary unless you changed the defaults.
Regards