CakePHP Gurus: Console cake command not finding -app path correctly?

I've installed the CakePHP core files in this folder:

/home/iopener/webapps/cake_1.2.1.8004

I've got my app installed here:

/home/iopener/webapps/Smasholi.com/app

The cake console command is in my path, and runs fine, but it seems to be ignoring any attempt to point it to the correct -app folder. If I run 'cake' from inside the app folder, I get this error:

Welcome to CakePHP v1.2.1.8004 Console
---------------------------------------------------------------
Current Paths:
 -app: app
 -working: /home/iopener/webapps/Smasholi.com/app
 -root: /home/iopener/webapps/Smasholi.com
 -core: /home/iopener/webapps/cake_1.2.1.8004

Changing Paths:
your working path should be the same as your application path
to change your path use the '-app' param.
Example: -app relative/path/to/myapp or -app /absolute/path/to/myapp

Note that the working path and the app path ARE the same, but the -app option is just missing the absolute path. So I tried this command:

cake -app /home/iopener/webapps/Smasholi.com/app

And got the exact same error message as before. I've tried running cake from the root folder (one level up from the app), I've tried using relative paths, but nothing seems to work.

I've spent about 2 hours on Google trying to find anybody with a similar problem, and no joy.

I have installed CakePHP on other machines and got this working without a problem, but I can't recall if it was using a centralized core folder (like I am now) or not.

Any ideas? TIA,

-Josh