Thanks to debugging help from @Rob_Russell, I managed to get Omeka installed and running on two separate development sites this week. For the most part, the Omeka documentation was great for getting me through the basics of downloading and setting up but I ran in to two problems: one was php-related due to the host I use (1and1) and the second was all thanks to mod_rewrite.
The first problem was a result of how 1and1 dealt with the upgrade from php4 to php5 back in the day. By default 1and1 runs php4 even when you specify php5 when you create the databases. Not sure if there are any other hosts that do this. To force php5 add this line to root/.htacess:
AddType x-mapp-php5 .php
After adding this line I was able to complete the install but then found a mod_rewrite problem. I could see the home page just fine but all links off the front page produced errors. Fixing this problem required adding RewriteBase rules to the root .htaccess and also to the .htaccess in /admin and /install.
into root/.htaccess add:
RewriteBase /
under install/.htaccess add:
RewriteBase /admin/
and finally under admin/.htaccess add:
RewriteBase /install/
After adding these rules I was able to complete the setup and navigate to all pages without a problem. I’m looking forward to playing with the theme and adding content.
Many thanks to the Centre for History and New Media!