New ecommerce module 4.7.2 installation problem

Drupal newb, LAMP expert here. Don't tone it down too much for me. I have drupal running, have installed new themes, and new modules, and so far we're all good, but I'm having trouble installing the ecommerce module(s).

First, a little bitch: I read the installation instructions. I uploaded the ENTIRE ecommerce directory, as it says to do, and my Administration > Modules node crashes. I just get a blank white page. I looked in the ecommerce directory, and there is no script in there of any kind, just three text information files. Obviously, Drupal cannot install that directory. When it looks for something to do, the module stares back with a dumb expression on it's face.

Since the instructions do mention it's a collection of modules, I thought I'd try uploading the entire contents of the ecommerce directory. Same blank stare from the admin module node.

I tried uploading the individual subdirectories one at a time, and that seemed to do it, but then some of them, docs, contrib, etc, give back the old blank node. I figured out that some of the directories don't contain modules directly, so I tried again without those. Still some break. Notably the 'store' sub-directory doesn't work. I understand this is kind of crucial.

NOTE: This is on my own LAMP test box, so I have complete control, and no actual Web site suffers. I also use phpmyadmin as it's easier to rummage round the DB's that way, but I have no probs administering MySQL manually either.

NOTE: I have manually changed ownership, and permissions on the whole diretory structure to comply with the default Apache user on Debina, www-data. I had to do this to Joomla just to get it run. Drupal actually ran out of the box, as Joomla should have.

My Guess: There's a couple of scripts missing from the ecommerce 4.7.2 tarball. I'll check a previous version, just to be sure.

Any help is appreciated.