ok so i dropped all my tables and deleted the forums directory and started from scratch. this time i created that directory in the 'cache' folder before installing. but now when im in the dashboard and click any of the links ie. 'Define how users register for your forum' i get 'No input file specified. '
You've got some server configuration problems. My guess is that the main problem is to do with mod_rewrite. This is compounded because of a problem with your apache configuration. Check out this link:
Which says: "When running PHP as a CGI binary on Apache, you might get the above error if you request a nonexistent PHP file."
So, Apache can't find the file you are requesting, and it is throwing that error. I'm guessing that it can't find the file because you are using mod_rewritten urls and mod_rewrite is either not configured, or there are other mod_rewrite rules overriding the ones that Vanilla 2 uses.
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I've already reported this to Mark, it may have been fixed in the latest code.
http://jenseng.com/archives/000035.html
Which says: "When running PHP as a CGI binary on Apache, you might get the above error if you request a nonexistent PHP file."
So, Apache can't find the file you are requesting, and it is throwing that error. I'm guessing that it can't find the file because you are using mod_rewritten urls and mod_rewrite is either not configured, or there are other mod_rewrite rules overriding the ones that Vanilla 2 uses.