Magento prior to version 1.5 required complete access to the file system (after 1.5 an FTP client was introduced that allowed Connect access to the file system via ftp)

You can do 3 things

1. as above.. set all files to 777.. this is a pain and you will have to reset them all after.. if you have Aitoc or similar modules you will have to then track down which files need extra permissions

2. change the file ownership of all files to apache (or what ever your web server runs as). This is less hassle and keeps your file permissions as they were. Simply revert ownership back after the install.

3. Change how php runs on your server.. it sounds like apache is running as mod_php.. change this to fast-cgi and all files owned by you will be accessible to the server. Switch back afterwards to continue the benefits of mod_php

Hope this helps

Magento prior to version 1.5 required complete access to the file system (after 1.5 an FTP client was introduced that allowed Connect access to the file system via ftp)

You can do 3 things

1. as above, set all files to 777. This is a pain and you will have to reset them all after. If you have Aitoc or similar modules you will have to then track down which files need extra permissions

2. change the file ownership of all files to apache (or what ever your web server runs as). This is less hassle and keeps your file permissions as they were. Simply revert ownership back after the install.

3. Change how php runs on your server. It sounds like Apache is running as mod_php. Change this to fast-cgi and all files owned by you will be accessible to the server. Switch back afterwards to continue the benefits of mod_php