The main thing that needs to be changed during a Joomla install is the directory permissions. Here is a shot of the install application before fixing the permissions:
| administrator/backups | Unwriteable | 
| administrator/components | Unwriteable | 
| administrator/modules | Unwriteable | 
| administrator/templates | Unwriteable | 
| cache | Unwriteable | 
| components | Unwriteable | 
| images | Unwriteable | 
| images/banners | Unwriteable | 
| images/stories | Unwriteable | 
| language | Unwriteable | 
| mambots | Unwriteable | 
| mambots/content | Unwriteable | 
| mambots/editors | Unwriteable | 
| mambots/editors-xtd | Unwriteable | 
| mambots/search | Unwriteable | 
| mambots/system | Unwriteable | 
| media | Unwriteable | 
| modules | Unwriteable | 
| templates | Unwriteable | 
Here is the sequence of commands to set the permissions for the web server account (apache):
chgrp apache administrator/backups chgrp apache administrator/components chgrp apache administrator/modules chgrp apache administrator/templates chgrp apache cache chgrp apache components chgrp apache images chgrp apache images/banners chgrp apache images/stories chgrp apache language chgrp apache mambots chgrp apache mambots/content chgrp apache mambots/editors chgrp apache mambots/editors-xtd chgrp apache mambots/search chgrp apache mambots/system chgrp apache media chgrp apache modules chgrp apache templates chmod g+w administrator/backups chmod g+w administrator/components chmod g+w administrator/modules chmod g+w administrator/templates chmod g+w cache chmod g+w components chmod g+w images chmod g+w images/banners chmod g+w images/stories chmod g+w language chmod g+w mambots chmod g+w mambots/content chmod g+w mambots/editors chmod g+w mambots/editors-xtd chmod g+w mambots/search chmod g+w mambots/system chmod g+w media chmod g+w modules chmod g+w templates  | 
Now the installation check looks like this:
| administrator/backups | Writeable | 
| administrator/components | Writeable | 
| administrator/modules | Writeable | 
| administrator/templates | Writeable | 
| cache | Writeable | 
| components | Writeable | 
| images | Writeable | 
| images/banners | Writeable | 
| images/stories | Writeable | 
| language | Writeable | 
| mambots | Writeable | 
| mambots/content | Writeable | 
| mambots/editors | Writeable | 
| mambots/editors-xtd | Writeable | 
| mambots/search | Writeable | 
| mambots/system | Writeable | 
| media | Writeable | 
| modules | Writeable | 
| templates | Writeable | 

