3
well I did do a search but eveidently my search words weren't logical.
Anyway, I looked at the article and it didn't offer any effective fixes but I did learn that XOOPS write adminmenu.php to the cache folder on that initial admin entry.
I haven't figured the problem but I got it working by copying adminmenu.php from a working version on another computer, with the same programs. I haven't had any problems yet but I figure something is not right.