Finally, I have manged to successfully install Magento 1.9.2.4 with demo sample data.
However, on the backend as well as the frontend, the problem is that the images, Css & javascript are not being rendered at all or the way they should appear.
Could there be a problem with the configuration settings in the .htaccess file in magento root directory ? This file has a lot of settings commented out depending on the server environment or is it some other issue.
My hosting environment is shared (Apache).
Reproduced below is the entire .htaccess file
############################################ ## uncomment these lines for CGI mode ## make sure to specify the correct cgi php binary file name ## it might be /cgi-bin/php-cgi # Action php5-cgi /cgi-bin/php5-cgi # AddHandler php5-cgi .php ############################################ ## GoDaddy specific options # Options -MultiViews ## you might also need to add this line to php.ini ## cgi.fix_pathinfo = 1 ## if it still doesn't work, rename php.ini to php5.ini ############################################ ## this line is specific for 1and1 hosting #AddType x-mapp-php5 .php #AddHandler x-mapp-php5 .php ############################################ ## default index file DirectoryIndex index.php <IfModule mod_php5.c> ############################################ ## adjust memory limit # php_value memory_limit 64M php_value memory_limit 256M php_value max_execution_time 18000 ############################################ ## disable magic quotes for php request vars php_flag magic_quotes_gpc off ############################################ ## disable automatic session start ## before autoload was initialized php_flag session.auto_start off ############################################ ## enable resulting html compression #php_flag zlib.output_compression on ########################################### # disable user agent verification to not break multiple image upload php_flag suhosin.session.cryptua off ########################################### # turn off compatibility with PHP4 when dealing with objects php_flag zend.ze1_compatibility_mode Off </IfModule> <IfModule mod_security.c> ########################################### # disable POST processing to not break multiple image upload SecFilterEngine Off SecFilterScanPOST Off </IfModule> <IfModule mod_deflate.c> ############################################ ## enable apache served files compression ## http://developer.yahoo.com/performance/rules.html#gzip # Insert filter on all content ###SetOutputFilter DEFLATE # Insert filter on selected content types only #AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/html text/plain text/xml text/css text/javascript # Netscape 4.x has some problems... #BrowserMatch ^Mozilla/4 gzip-only-text/html # Netscape 4.06-4.08 have some more problems #BrowserMatch ^Mozilla/4\.0[678] no-gzip # MSIE masquerades as Netscape, but it is fine #BrowserMatch \bMSIE !no-gzip !gzip-only-text/html # Don't compress images #SetEnvIfNoCase Request_URI \.(?:gif|jpe?g|png)$ no-gzip dont-vary # Make sure proxies don't deliver the wrong content #Header append Vary User-Agent env=!dont-vary </IfModule> <IfModule mod_ssl.c> ############################################ ## make HTTPS env vars available for CGI mode SSLOptions StdEnvVars </IfModule> <IfModule mod_rewrite.c> ############################################ ## enable rewrites Options +FollowSymLinks RewriteEngine on ############################################ ## you can put here your magento root folder ## path relative to web root #RewriteBase /magento/ ############################################ ## uncomment next line to enable light API calls processing # RewriteRule ^api/([a-z][0-9a-z_]+)/?$ api.php?type=$1 [QSA,L] ############################################ ## rewrite API2 calls to api.php (by now it is REST only) RewriteRule ^api/rest api.php?type=rest [QSA,L] ############################################ ## workaround for HTTP authorization ## in CGI environment RewriteRule .* - [E=HTTP_AUTHORIZATION:%{HTTP:Authorization}] ############################################ ## TRACE and TRACK HTTP methods disabled to prevent XSS attacks RewriteCond %{REQUEST_METHOD} ^TRAC[EK] RewriteRule .* - [L,R=405] ############################################ ## redirect for mobile user agents #RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/mobiledirectoryhere/.*$ #RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} "android|blackberry|ipad|iphone|ipod|iemobile|opera mobile|palmos|webos|googlebot-mobile" [NC] #RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /mobiledirectoryhere/ [L,R=302] ############################################ ## always send 404 on missing files in these folders RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/(media|skin|js)/ ############################################ ## never rewrite for existing files, directories and links RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-l ############################################ ## rewrite everything else to index.php RewriteRule .* index.php [L] </IfModule> ############################################ ## Prevent character encoding issues from server overrides ## If you still have problems, use the second line instead AddDefaultCharset Off #AddDefaultCharset UTF-8 <IfModule mod_expires.c> ############################################ ## Add default Expires header ## http://developer.yahoo.com/performance/rules.html#expires ExpiresDefault "access plus 1 year" </IfModule> ############################################ ## By default allow all access Order allow,deny Allow from all ########################################### ## Deny access to release notes to prevent disclosure of the installed Magento version <Files RELEASE_NOTES.txt> order allow,deny deny from all </Files> ############################################ ## If running in cluster environment, uncomment this ## http://developer.yahoo.com/performance/rules.html#etags #FileETag none ########################################### ## Deny access to cron.php <Files cron.php> ############################################ ## uncomment next lines to enable cron access with base HTTP authorization ## http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/howto/auth.html ## ## Warning: .htpasswd file should be placed somewhere not accessible from the web. ## This is so that folks cannot download the password file. ## For example, if your documents are served out of /usr/local/apache/htdocs ## you might want to put the password file(s) in /usr/local/apache/. #AuthName "Cron auth" #AuthUserFile ../.htpasswd #AuthType basic #Require valid-user ############################################ Order allow,deny Deny from all </Files>
When you didn't change anything in the .htaccess file, that should not be the problem. All the commented stuff is default Magento.
What is the result in your source code? Do you get actual URLs or do you get a path in the source code of the pages?
If it shows URLs, you might want to clear your cache and maybe also open the a JS or CSS file. If that doesn't show anything, or some kind of 404 page, it means it couldn't find the files. Maybe a cache flush might fix this.
If it shows paths (like: /var/domain/magento/media/css/filename.css), it means that your permissions are incorrect. You need to set them according this manual: http://devdocs.magento.com/guides/m1x/install/installer-privileges_after.html