Dave: What OS is your VM? I use Ubuntu 14 and had the same issue. After installing Lamp server I had to update PHP5 by adding php5-mbstring. It may also be that Apache2 requires mbstring.
For Ubuntu 14
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install lamp-server^ phpmyadmin
sudo apt-get install php5-mbstring
sudo service apache2 restart
If you are using a Windoze server, I suggest you install WAMP.
Good luck!
--
northernpenguin
Northern Penguin Technologies
"Any sufficiently advanced technology
is indistinguishable from magic."
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