[SOLVED] Upgrade appears after fresh install

No errors on (fresh application and database) install. but when I try to goto Gallery at the end, I keep getting redirected to the upgrade screens - no matter how many times I complete the upgrade process. And the index.php and mail.php pages render 404 errors.

Currently installed 0.8.17, taken from a nightly snapshot this week.
This is my second attempt.
The site is hosted on globat.com, so cannot foresee any version problems with the platform.

Platform FreeBSD martinique.globat.com 4.8-RELEASE FreeBSD 4.8-RELEASE #0: Wed May i386
Web Server Server version: Apache/1.3.29 (Unix) Server built: Nov 11 2003 16:53:18
PHP 4.3.4 MySQL 4.0.13
PERL v5.8.0 built for i386-freebsd PHPMyAdmin phpMyAdmin 2.5.0

and if the clean install fails too, try using the other mysql driver during install (in the database step, you can select two different mysql drivers).

missing files can not be fixed by doing again the install steps.
you have to upload these files to your server, G2 can't work without the files in the templates directory.

ok, they are uploaded, but still i get redirected to the upgrade screens...

1. i am sure
2. seems not:

module core 0 permissions.directory 0755
module core 0 permissions.file 0644
module core 0 uploadLocalServer.dirs
module core 0 exec.expectedStatus 0
module core 0 default.orderBy orderWeight
module core 0 default.orderDirection 1
module core 0 default.layout matrix
module core 0 default.theme matrix
module core 0 default.language en_GB
module core 0 default.newAlbumsUseDefaults false
module core 0 language.selector none
module core 0 session.lifetime 788400000
module core 0 session.inactivityTimeout 1209600
module core 0 misc.markup bbcode
module core 0 misc.useShortUrls false
module core 0 misc.login both
module core 0 lock.system flock
layout matrix 0 _version 0.8.1
layout matrix 0 _requiredCoreApi 3,4
layout matrix 0 _requiredLayoutApi 0,9
layout matrix 0 rows 3
layout matrix 0 columns 3
layout matrix 0 showImageOwner 0
layout matrix 0 showAlbumOwner 1
layout matrix 0 showMicroThumbs 0
module core 0 id.allUserGroup 1
module core 0 id.adminGroup 2
module core 0 id.everybodyGroup 3
module core 0 id.anonymousUser 4
module core 0 id.rootAlbum 6

it's there:

module core 0 _version 0.8.17

the rest:

module core 0 _version 0.8.17 
module debug 0 _version 0.8.7 
module useralbum 0 _version 0.8.9 
module newitems 0 _version 0.5.1 
module panorama 0 _version 0.8.7 
module rearrange 0 _version 0.7.1 
module cart 0 _version 0.8.9 
module zipcart 0 _version 0.8.6 
module randomhighlight 0 _version 0.9.1 
module photoaccess 0 _version 0.8.6 
module watermark 0 _version 0.8.8 
module webcam 0 _version 0.9.1 
module comment 0 _version 0.81.6 
module shutterfly 0 _version 0.6.1 
module exif 0 _version 0.8.8 
module squarethumb 0 _version 0.8.8 
module nokiaupload 0 _version 0.8.5 
module sizelimit 0 _version 0.8.8 
module archiveupload 0 _version 0.4.1 
module albumselect 0 _version 0.8.4 
module search 0 _version 0.8.5 
module members 0 _version 0.8.6 
module rewrite 0 _version 0.8.0 
module multilang 0 _version 0.5.1 
module thumbnail 0 _version 0.8.7 
module gd 0 _version 0.8.8 
module slideshow 0 _version 0.8.6 
module thumbpage 0 _version 0.8.7 
module ffmpeg 0 _version 0.8.6 
module uploadapplet 0 _version 0.8.6 
module remote 0 _version 0.8.7 
module imageblock 0 _version 0.8.11 
module register 0 _version 0.8.7 
layout matrix 0 _version 0.8.1 
module imageframe 0 _version 0.8.7 

investigating...
noticed that it says "alpha" in the installer -> it can't be the most recent cvs version.
uploading and installing the nearly beta 1 release now.

notes:
1. i had it working, but during the install of all modules, i encountered a memory limit error
2. that's because your host allows you only to use 8mb memory per php request. that is most times too few for most php applications, especially for G2
3. your webserver is very slow. loads of 10 to 30, that's extremely overloaded
-> 2. and 3. = very slow G2 and you'll get perhaps often errors when adding new images etc. because of the low memory limit. ask your webmaster to rise it to 16MB or more.
4. don't use ftp to upload G2 and other large applications. upload an archived version of G2 (i.e. g2.zip, or g2.tar.gz) and unarchive it on the server. i.e. with a short php script
<?php exec("tar-xzf current.gallery2.tar.gz",$ret); ?>
if the archive was named current.gallery2.tar.gz.
5. i reinstalled G2 again. because of 2. and 3., activate module after module, not all at once.
6. i haven't installed all modules, that's up to you.

change your passwords now. i don't need access any more.

ps: your webhost is a good example that all the good specs in their offer isn't everything. their server is completly overloaded and they limit your php applications with a very restrictive 8mb memory limit.

Similar situation happened to me when I tried to install gallery2 on different server, and I pointed to an EXISTING gallery2 database. When I tried to run the gallery on the 2nd server it redirected me to the update page, where it complained about Core not being up-to-date (0.8 while it should have been 0.9)