Again, what do the paths in your /includes/config.inc.php folder display as? Something is broken somewhere, the UBB shouldn't ever ask for anything relating to php.ini as that's the configuration file for php on your webserver.

The only references in the UBB to "php.ini" are all comments that tell anyone browsing that values are determined via the php.ini; here is every notation of php.ini in the UBB.threads code (the command is executed on a linux/unix machine, it looks for the text "php.ini" in the indicated folder (in this case, my sandbox UBB.Threads install, running stock 7.5.9; if you have SSH access to your webspace I encourage you to do the same):
Code
[ubb@server sandbox]# grep -r "php.ini" /home/sandbox/
/home/sandbox/libs/smarty/Smarty.class.php:     * variables_order in php.ini E = Environment, G = GET, P = POST,
/home/sandbox/libs/smarty/Smarty.class.php:     * no effect, but the php-ini-value "gpc_order"
/home/sandbox/libs/phpmailer/README:Copy class.phpmailer.php into your php.ini include_path. If you are
/home/sandbox/admin/dogroup_forumperms.php:// Get the max upload size in php.ini
/home/sandbox/admin/doforumperms.php:// Get the max upload size in php.ini
/home/sandbox/languages/english/admin/forumperms.php:$ubbt_lang['FILE_SIZE_1'] = "If file attachments are enabled in the forum, this dictates how large each file attachment can be. Max size set in php.ini is <b>%%MAX_SIZE%%</b> so you may not exceed this size.";
/home/sandbox/languages/english/admin/forumperms.php:$ubbt_lang['GALLERY_SIZE_1'] = "If this forum is a gallery forum, this setting dictates how large each image may be. Max size set in php.ini is <b>%%MAX_SIZE%%</b>, so you may not exceed this size.";
/home/sandbox/languages/english/admin/primary.php:$ubbt_lang['SMTP_1'] = "Normally this is controlled by php.ini. However if you need to send mail through another SMTP server and cannot do this by editing php.ini, you can specify it here.";
/home/sandbox/ubbthreads.php:if (ini_get("zlib.output_compression")) $zlib = "Zlib compression enabled in php.ini";
/home/sandbox/install/LANGUAGE_CHANGES.txt:VERSION-7.4b1:CHANGED:FILE-admin/forumperms.php:KEY-$ubbt_lang['FILE_SIZE_1']:VALUE-"If file attachments are enabled in the forum, this dictates how large each file attachment can be.  Max size set in php.ini is <b>%%MAX_SIZE%%</b> so you may not exceed this size.";
/home/sandbox/install/LANGUAGE_CHANGES.txt:VERSION-7.4b1:CHANGED:FILE-admin/forumperms.php:KEY-$ubbt_lang['GALLERY_SIZE_1']:VALUE-"If this forum is a gallery forum, this setting dictates how large each image may be. Max size set in php.ini is <b>%%MAX_SIZE%%</b>, so you may not exceed this size.";
/home/sandbox/install/LANGUAGE_CHANGES.txt:VERSION-7.1b1:NEW:FILE-admin/primary.php:KEY-$ubbt_lang['SMTP_1']:VALUE-"Normally this is controlled by php.ini.  However if you need to send mail through another SMTP server and cannot do this by editing php.ini, you can specify it here.";
/home/sandbox/scripts/filemanager.inc.php:       // Get the max upload size in php.ini
/home/sandbox/scripts/filemanager.inc.php:               // No file size at all, exceeded php.ini setting

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