PROBLEM SOLVED, this was not a XOOPS issue at all rather a ISP issue. One can never depend on those who provide 24/7 services when there's nothing there to serve! ISP uses outdated version of cPanel full of add on things that don't install anywhere. These addon's include XOOPS 2.0.6. Using Cpanel on this ISP to Addon XOOPS results in 20 files written but they are all blank no cache, no template_c directories are created. A real mess.

I was doing a manual upload and install of 2.0.7, when ever i got to the WRITING mainfile.php I would get a installer error. I tried numerous things to no avail... including loading the sql then creating a mainfile.php. Noting worked I ran out of tricks and then discovered it was not my problem in the first place but a ISP thing. Geez $8.95US a month for 10MB of disk space, 1000 SQL databases, 1000 subdomains, 1000 email addys etc, etc. But try to install a single software app out of the 25 offered via cPanel and not a single thing works. Ha

ZGood thing is this forum allow me to vent a bit, sorry for going on.

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Just D/L a fresh copy of XOOPS off Sourceforge. Likely a 2.0.7 since it did not say 2.0.7.1. Unpacked locally and loaded onto the server. Did the expected things to fire the install process, tried this 7 - 8 times already no go. And we're talking remove and reload distribution.

This is very frustrating as I've done this a number of times already and each time I've had no problem unless they were simple typos. I did a search here on site and found some information but none applies.

Before you ask, yes, chmod the appropriate files 666 and 777. Installer confirms the practice.

Info returned by installer:

Directory uploads/ is writable.
Directory cache/ is writable.
Directory templates_c/ is writable.
File mainfile.php is writable.
Green Lights Lets Go!

Plug in correct info localhost, dbuser, dbpass, dbname, default others.

No errors detected.

Saving configuration data..
Could not write into mainfile.php. Please check the file permission and try again.

Server Info Linux
apache (1.3.28 (Unix))
PHP version 4.3.3
MySQL version 4.0.20-standard
cPanel Build 9.4.1-CURRENT 69
mysql (4.0.20-standard)

PHP configured this way:
--prefix=/usr --with-xml --enable-bcmath --enable-calendar --with-curl --with-dom --with-dom-xslt --with-dom-exslt --with-swf=/usr/local/flash --enable-ftp --with-gd --with-jpeg-dir=/usr/local --with-png-dir=/usr --with-xpm-dir=/usr/X11R6 --with-gettext --with-imap --with-imap-ssl --with-kerberos --enable-mbstring --enable-mbstr-enc-trans --enable-mbregex --with-mcrypt --with-mhash --with-ming=../ming-0.2a --enable-magic-quotes --with-mysql=/usr --with-openssl --with-pear --enable-safe-mode --enable-sockets --enable-track-vars --with-ttf --with-freetype-dir=/usr --enable-gd-native-ttf --enable-versioning --enable-wddx --with-zlib


Server API CGI
Thread Safety disabled

Registered PHP Streams php, http, ftp, https, ftps, compress.zlib

Straight forward no subdomains etc, etc.

Anyone have any ideas?

regards
a frustrated rocket set to blast off into space