[support] development copy of site fails

[Bert Van Kets]

Hi people,

I have been asked to make changes to a Drupal 6 site that was _not_ 
developed by me. To make sure the changes don't break anything I want to 
set up a local copy of the site.
The first thing I need to do is remove a Google Maps install. This is 
done using modules and not in the theme files.
When starting the local copy the Google Maps script tells me I need a 
new key and then throws me to the home page. I can log in as admin, but 
the message for the Google maps key keeps popping up and throwing me to 
the home page.
I disabled every module containing gmaps in the name directly in the 
database, but that didn't change a thing.
I assumed the key was linked to the domain name, but even setting the 
URLs in the hosts file and creating new virtual hosts in Apache didn't 
solve the problem. No matter what page I request I still get only the 
home page and can't get into the admin pages.
I then pointed maps.google.com to the 127.0.0.1. That got rid of the 
request for a new key, but nothing else changed. :-(
I even removed the theme directories. That only remove the styling, but 
not the problem of the stuck home page.

I am totally stuck.
I really need to get this site totally functioning to be able to do the 
changes.

Any tips are appreciated.

Bert