My PHP version is 5.1.6 I have install Json by follow the instructions:
# yum install php-devel # yum install php-pear # yum install gcc # pear install json
Granted, this is an old topic, but maybe someone will stumble across this like I did in August 2015. I fixed this by changing the extensions folder path in php.ini. It was somehow set to "./" and not /usr/lib64/php/modules/