i figured out that it is easier to set up helma and apache on suse 8.4. then described here.

1. follow item 2 und 3 from here
2. edit /etc/httpd/modules/tomcat such that the last line reads Include:/[path/to]/jk/mod_jk.conf
3. use yast to configure your server to use tomcat. (remark: of course, you don't use tomcat. this setting only puts this file into the apache config file.)

that's it. make sure you define the mountpoint for antville to the path /helma or whatever you define in mod_jk.conf.

Addition: 4. If you want to use rewrite rules for nice url, move the line LoadModule rewrite_module /usr/lib/apache/mod_rewrite.so after Include /etc/httpd/suse_loadmodule.conf and the line AddModule mod_rewrite.c after Include /etc/httpd/suse_addmodule.conf

there is only one problem: for some reason the css and js cannot be found. looks like the css and js macro do not take the mountpoint into account.