I have a similar (but not exactly the same problem). Would it be hijacking to post to this thread?

On the permissions note. My provider just moved me to a cpanel system from hsphere - I can't leave my two configure.php files at CHMOD 0644, zencart complains. If I CHMOD to 0444 they won't run. So I cheated, in CPANEL file manger I can CHMOD to 544 - not a legal number but it lets it run.