I found that on ubuntu (8) php-cli uses a different php.ini than apache:
/etc/php5/apache2/php.ini
/etc/php5/cli/php.ini
I adjusted my cron as follows:
*/5 * * * * /usr/bin/php -c /etc/php5/apache2/php.ini /var/www/funkuniversitysupport/html/api/cron.php
solved my problem
thank you sooo much i been looking for this issues with a ubuntu problem for a few days now.
