When manually building mod_perl using the shared library:

panic% cd mod_perl-1.xx
panic% perl Makefile.PL PREP_HTTPD=1
panic% make && make test
panic# make install

panic% cd ../apache_1.3.xx
panic% ./configure --with-layout=RedHat --target=perlhttpd 
    --activate-module=src/modules/perl/libperl.a

you might see the following output:

gcc -c  -I./os/unix -I./include   -DLINUX=2 -DTARGET=\"perlhttpd\"
-DUSE_HSREGEX -DUSE_EXPAT -I./lib/expat-lite `./apaci` buildmark.c
gcc  -DLINUX=2 -DTARGET=\"perlhttpd\" -DUSE_HSREGEX -DUSE_EXPAT 
-I./lib/expat-lite `./apaci`    \
      -o perlhttpd buildmark.o modules.o modules/perl/libperl.a 
modules/standard/libstandard.a main/libmain.a ./os/unix/libos.a ap/libap.a 
regex/libregex.a lib/expat-lite/libexpat.a  -lm -lcrypt
modules/perl/libperl.a(mod_perl.o): In function `perl_shutdown':
mod_perl.o(.text+0xf8): undefined reference to `PL_perl_destruct_level'
mod_perl.o(.text+0x102): undefined reference to `PL_perl_destruct_level'
mod_perl.o(.text+0x10c): undefined reference to `PL_perl_destruct_level'
mod_perl.o(.text+0x13b): undefined reference to `Perl_av_undef'
[more errors snipped]

This happens when Perl was built statically linked, with no shared libperl.a. Build a dynamically linked Perl (with libperl.a) and the problem will disappear.