Hello.
I am totally new to WordPress and have a couple of problems with installation and running it. I searched the forums and the codex, but didn't really find the answers I needed. So, here we go:
What is available:
I have a hoster with Apache, with PHP 4.4.2 and MySQL 4.1.20. mod_rewrite is enabled.
What I want:
There is a static website I would like to keep and add the blog (as a separate entity, so it might replace the website in the long term).
My home DIR on the host has the user directories and a www for the website itself. So, if you enter the domain name (www.amanuensis.de) the www/index.htm is shown.
I now did create www/wp to take all the WordPress files and managed to do a proper install (database, wp_config, etc.) and the blog is basically running. However, I deleted it because of the following:
Pretty Permalinks (date/post-title) do not work - I get "no such file or directory messages" (although the .htaccess is in www/wp/wp-admin and I did wait a day).
When I try to chmod the wp directory or any other files/directories, I cannot change directory any longer and nothing works. The r/w permessions after creating the wp are drwxr-xr-x.
So, my questions:
1. Is it correct to place the .htaccess in www/wp/wp-admin or does it need to go somewhere else?
2. I was under the impression that I would need Owner r/w and Group r/w as well as Other r permissions for the directories, but this leads to non-working folders and installation. What is the correct permission? And do I need to vary them by folder?
3. I cannot change themes from within Admin, I have to upload the .php's anew for them to work. So it all seems to boil down to a permission conflict. I do not want to make it 777 (that is r/w/e for Owner, Group and Others), obviously.
4. I noticed that in the current configuration, the RSS feed buttons call up an error message. Maybe that will be gone with the proper permissions, too? Or do I need a specific plug-in/module loaded for those?
5. A layout question: Can I have a static page shown in the main blogging area, for example an address page or some info from the static website that is then shown like a post, but without any additional posts top or bottom and without the option to comment?
Thank you for reading through all this.
I do really appreciate clear answers or, of course, pointers to articles I might have missed that tell me how to help myself.
Best
Guido