Absolute Newbie - Installing Magento 1.9.2.4 Error during download

[ApsG]

Hey guys,

This is the first time I am working on Linux / Apache  with PHP & Mysql. While installing during the download phase I am geeting the following error :

• "There was a problem during downloading of Magento packages. Please check the output frame for errors information and refresh the page to retry again."

 I just cleared the cache in the var directory in the root but to no effect.

I have no idea what this means or what I should do. Any help would be much appreciated

[SindreM]

Well, did you check the output frame for any errors as it says? It should give you more information about the actual error. There might be a couple of reasons, e.g. network related, wrong file permissions, etc.

Instead of using the downloader, you can try installing the complete archive. This way you won't have to download the packages first.

Are you running your own server or do you have a hosting provider? Maybe they can give you some assistance as well.

[ApsG]

Many thanks ! It worked.

I uploaded the archive and it seems to be working except that the sample
data pages both front end and back end and their related links seem to
have lost their formatting, images and even labels.

Kinda happy and relieved that it worked and kinda frustrated with this new
problem.

BTW this may sound terribly elementary but what is output frame ? I am an
absolute newbie in this. Hosting is shared hosting and support from them or
Magento is almost nonexistent.

[SindreM]

The output frame is just the small window with the black background where the progress messages are written during the download phase.

Regarding the bad formatting it sounds like the CSS style sheets are not loaded. One reason for this could be that the base urls are incorrect. Are you able to log into the admin panel? Check the base url settings from System -> Configuration -> Web. They should contain the full url to your domain like http://your-store.com/ 

It is particularly important that the trailing slash is included.

[ApsG]

Thank you for your response.

I am able to log in to the admin panel.

The resulting page is a mess interface readability wise because of no css/ no formatting.

However, under the  System -> Configuration -> Web : URL options - Add store code to URLs. 

This was by default "no". I changed it to "Yes" and Saved config. 

But still no change. 

Frontend and backend are still the same on loading again.

Must say that My base URL was not explicitly shown anywhere  and now I am not sure if I included the trailing forward slash  /  that you mention during my installation. How do I  check this ? Did I miss something  ?

[ApsG]

Ok checked and confirmed. Base  URL is  indeed entered with a forward trailing slash

 as in http://www.mydomainname/store/

So this is not the cause.

This is saved under configuration > General > Web > Secure / Unsecure.

So the CSS / Formatting issues in frontend & backend  still remain !

[ApsG · Accepted solution]

Got it !

Problem Solved. The issue was because of incorrectly merged media as well as the skin directory in the root. Thank you SindreM for all your suggestions ! Now just a minor issue with the the display of  incorrect / blank Currency symbol.