wp-admin/install.php refuses to load

environment:
* Debian Sarge
* LAMP presumably correctly configured (drupal and friends work)
* wordpress 2.04, tried both latest source and debian etch package
* put a test.php (<? phpinfo() ?>) in the wp-admin dir with the same permissions as install.php; this executes

problem:
* wp-admin/install.php refuses to load, as in: not even a single byte comes through
* logs don’t say anything