Apache + php: url arguments empty

["Johan de Jong" <jrdejong@gmail.com>]

Hi,

I have just installed debian testing on my new gear. Among the packages are:

apache2
apache2-common
apache2-mpm-prefork
apache2-utils
libapache2-mod-php4
libapache2-mod-php4
php4-common

The document root contains an index.php:

<?php
       printf("mytag has value: %s\n", $mytag);
?>

My problem is that when I load the page using:

http://localhost/?mytag=a

the value of mytag is empty. I stumbled on this problem when migrating
an existing and working webpage.

Any ideas what is wrong? All config files are from a fresh install, no
modifications.

Thanks,

Johan de Jong.