2/ You will need to append a line to your PHP.INI to enabel ionCube. ionCube's install helper will give you the exact line to add: php /usr/local/ioncube/ioncube-loader-helper.php
The line to be appended will look something like: zend_extension = /usr/local/ioncube/ioncube_loader_lin_5.2.so
After that's appended, ionCube should work. If it's working, php -v should list ionCube as a loaded extension.