Idiots guide to installing drupal?

Does anyone know of one? a blog or a forum for beginners perhaps?
I've looked at the forum on drupal.org and see a lot of people having the same problems as me, and not much in the way of solutions that I understand
I've installed joomla a few times and never had any problems, but I can't get past the first install page with drupal and I'm on my fourth attempt :-(

 

what error/s are you coming up with?

 

That should go pretty fast. Is is throwing errors? That is pretty easy to install.

I am offering install services for a limited time. See sig.

Nigel

 

I want to learn how to install it myself - which is why I'm looking for a blog or some articles that explain in it simple language.

 

See if this helps http://www.siteground.com/tutorials/drupal-tutorial/drupal_manual_installation.htm

installing manually is pretty simple.

hope that helps,
Nigel

 

Thanks for that - it answered my question, but doesn't help me, I'm afraid because I get loads of error messages when I do that :-(
Oh well, back to the drawing board.

 

What are the errors? Are they database related?

Nigel

 

"The Drupal installer requires that you create a settings file as part of the installation process.
Copy the ./sites/default/default.settings.php file to ./sites/default/settings.php.
Change file permissions so that it is writable by the web server. If you are unsure how to grant file permissions, please consult the on-line handbook.
More details about installing Drupal are available in INSTALL.txt.
Multibyte string input conversion in PHP is active and must be disabled. Check the php.ini mbstring.http_input setting. "

The first one defeats me completely, because I think I've done it.
I'm obviously missing something :-(

 

Make sure you CHMOD the files to 777 so that they can be written to. You should be able to set permissions.

 

This is what defeats me, because I think I've done just that - and yet I still get the error message :-(
Back to joomla I think :-/

 

I'm not sure what this is about, but run it past your host.

 

If you like I will install it for you. Or guide you through it?

 

i might be able to help.. PM me if you're still stuck..

Edit: oh yeah, no fees, no strings..

 

Hi
I have been trying to install my first drupal site for the last couple of days. I seem to be coming up against a similar error:


* The Drupal installer requires that you create a settings file as part of the installation process.
1. Copy the ./sites/default/default.settings.php file to ./sites/default/settings.php.
2. Change file permissions so that it is writable by the web server. If you are unsure how to grant file permissions, please consult the on-line handbook.
More details about installing Drupal are available in INSTALL.txt.
* register_globals is enabled. Drupal requires this configuration directive to be disabled. Your site may not be secure when register_globals is enabled. The PHP manual has instructions for how to change configuration settings. (Currently using PHP register globals Enabled ('1'))
* The directory sites/default/files is not writable. An automated attempt to create this directory failed, possibly due to a permissions problem. To proceed with the installation, either create the directory and modify its permissions manually, or ensure that the installer has the permissions to create it automatically. For more information, please see INSTALL.txt or the on-line handbook.

I tried creating the settings php file, but I get an 'operation not permitted' error message. The same when i try to change the permission settings (0777) on any file.
Any help would be much appreciated!

 

If you can not set the permissions you wont be able to install anything. The first step should be to contact your hosting providers support and ask them why it's not working. They may have some restrictions such as you only being able to install files in certain paths etc.

 

Thanks 802, have emailed them and waiting on a reply.

 

you probably haven't copied the .htaccess file