After installing, I have the message to remove write permissions from sites/default and sites/default/settings.php. But if I do, I lose access to the site and go instead to the install page (install.php). If I proceed with the install, of course it tells me to make these writable again.

I have tried this a dozen times in a dozen different ways, but it's a Catch 22. I can't make the site safe because it wants to reinstall and I can only reinstall if I make the site unsafe again.

Any advice appreciated.

Comments

What are the permissions?

During normal operation drupal needs read-only access to the file (and folder). What are the chances that you are setting the permissions to 'none' ? If drupal suddenly was unable to access settings.php anymore it might get confused and try to reinstall.

permissions

I was trying to set to 644 (or some similar number that I read from the installation instructions). I hadn't removed read permissions. But I see other files and folders such as sites/default/files are set to 755. So I changed these to 755 and its fine.

thanks for setting me in the right direction.