2.6.2 install fails when wp-config.php is not in wordpress dir

Well then, why don’t you go to the /blog/wordpress/wp-admin/install.php directly?

WordPress cannot guess your directory structure before you have told it what that structure is. You have not setup WordPress yet, so it assumes you’re using a standard configuration, which you are clearly not. If you want to use non-standard and have it work by default, then you need to define WP_SITEURL and WP_HOME. And probably WP_CONTENT_DIR in your case as well, since you have a nonstandard wp-content location.

Nonstandard configurations are currently not recommended, as many plugins will break if they can’t find the right directories they are expecting. WordPress handles it fine, but many plugins don’t have the same level of quality control there.

Thanks for the reply Otto.

I know the direct route and that’s what I used to get the install to work. And I’ll probably start implementing the WP_SITEURL and WP_HOME too, although as you say, plugins still won’t necessarily play by the rules.

I’m trying to standardise a site structure that allows for quick and easy WordPress updates, without the risk of deleting wp-content in the process. Or for that matter, downloading wp-content and then uploading it all over again, once WordPress has been re-installed.

Unzipping directly on the server is the straightforward way, but it’s just not an option on many shared servers.