Purchased EE 2.1.0 yesterday and tried to install it today. Followed the instructions in
User Guide Installation and Update Instructions.
Followed the instructions on
Running the System Directory Above Webroot
but now I’m stuck at “Your config file does not appear to be formatted correctly.” (my website).
My website is hosted at Dreamhost and I did run the compatibility test before.

Welcome to the ExpressionEngine forums, Elise.

Dreamhost is one of those hosting services that might require you do to make some changes. Are you using PHP5 at Dreamhost?

What I’d do first is attempt the install inside the root, and use the default system folder name.

Thank you, Sue. Yes, I am using PHP5 at Dreamhost. Per your suggestion, I’ve reinstalled system and index.php in folder that bears the name of my domain (tweebomen.com). When I use:

I get

Your config file does not appear to be formatted correctly.

.
When I use what seems to be the complete server path:

I get

Your system folder path does not appear to be set correctly. Please open the following file and correct this: index.php

Which is different, but still not good.

I did the .htaccess thing I found in this post Won’t install EE 2.1 and suddenly it worked. So, problem solved.

EDIT: Just to clarify for people who run into the same problem trying to install ExpressionEngine on Dreamhost: all you need to do is make sure you have an .htaccess file with the line

inside the root folder of your website, that’s the folder named <yourdomain>.com. If you want to place the system folder above the root, place the .htaccess at the same level. For convenience’s sake, I’ve attached an htaccess.txt file to this post. Just make sure you rename it to .htaccess once you’ve uploaded it or else it won’t work.

Other than that, just follow the instructions in the user guide, the links to which I included in my original post. Easy. Perhaps someone could add this to the user guide? My reputation isn’t good enough yet.

Glad you are up and running again. Feel free to start a new thread if you have any more questions.