You can’t run Silex apps directly on Dreamhost yet. After a bit of digging around I came up with this.

You need to create a file ~/.php/5.3/phprc in your home directory, not under the website directory and put these lines in there.


extension=phar.so
detect_unicode = Off
phar.readonly = Off
phar.require_hash = Off
suhosin.executor.include.whitelist = phar


Its not immediate, but in about 15 mins it should work.

Reference http://serverfault.com/questions/317416/enabling-phar-on-dreamhost-shared-hosting

Vote up my answer if it works for you.