Not sure if it’s just me.  But for every Magento development done, whenever I upload my code to the production server, the code would run fine, but when it comes to installing extensions using Magento Connect, it would never properly install the extensions (even though it claims that it has successfully installed the ext.).

The problem appears to be an issue with the “Downloader” folder not being writeable in the production environment; this makes perfect sense from security perspective, but there just needs to be better documentation on how to best setup the site so that Magento Connect works as advertised.

I googled and came across the following post: https://www.gigapros.com/support/index.php?_m=knowledgebase&_a=viewarticle&kbarticleid=164, the long and short of is is simply to make Magento fully writeable (777) when you run the Magento Connect, and then reset the permissions after the extension has been installed….it’s a somewhat satisfactory workaround i guess.

Here’s how to do this thru your SSH client. Log in to your SSH account and then execute the following commands:

1. cd <your_magento_folder_path>
2. find . -type d -exec chmod 777 {} \;
3. chmod 666 downloader/config.ini

You should now be able to access the Magento Connect Manager. When you have finished the installation/upgrade, you should reset the permissions by executing the following SSH commands:

1. find . -type d -exec chmod 755 {} \;
2. find . -type f -exec chmod 644 {} \;
3. chmod o+w var media app/etc/use_cache.ser

blog posting 777, magento, Magento Connect, permission