I kept getting this strange error and then I got an idea. It helped me so I thought I post this here for others who may experience the same problem:
Initial Installation Error :
your config file seem not to be configured correctly
Display Error :
(some) Images are not displayed
Solution;
First - I changed chmod of the folder /system/expressionengine/config/ to 777 - Second - I uploaded config.php and database.php again and set their chmod to 666
Third - I ran install again - this time with success.
Note: Not sure if the “config” folder chmod setting 777 may have solved the install error or the second upload of the files but their is no harm in changing the folder chmod for the sake of installation and then you can set it back to 755 again
Since some images displayed (both in the admin section as well as in the Agyle sample site) and others didn’t there was only one explanation to me that, somehow, the upload to my server location must have gotten interrupted and files were corrupted. Strange but because all images were present on the server and their file sizes were identical to the once on my local machine (untouched after a commercial EE 2.1.1. download)
Thus, I manually uploaded all images within the folders
— /system/expressionengine/fonts/
— /themes/cp_themes/default/images/
— /themes/cp_themes/default/images/fancybox/
— /themes/site_themes/agile_records/fonts/
— /themes/site_themes/agile_records/images/
— /themes/site_themes/agile_records/images/uploads/
again
For even stranger reasons and weird, too, images in these folders were not corrupted and needn’t to be uploaded again. ( i can say that because these were the only images they displayed both in admin as on the sample site)
— /images/smilies/
— /images/avatars/default_set/
— /themes/cp_global_images/
(half) Conclusion: (not considering the “weird” fact above)
I suggest you do not a bulk folder upload to your server (although you could, as I did and as long you change the mode to “Binary” for image folders) - but instead - create all folders on your server first, set all the chmod necessary for a successful install and the manually open each folder and upload its containing files.
As an option (not tested though) It may be possible to upload EE to the online server as a “zip archive” and decompress the file on the server and install without getting all these errors.
Information: I work on a Mac Snow Leopard with MAMP installed and use FileZilla for all my uploads.