Easy to advanced Wordpress
From DreamHost
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So, you installed WordPress via the Easy One-Click installer in our panel -- but now you can't upload themes or plugins. Unfortunately, in easy mode, you cannot access the files for the installation (so you can only use the themes/plugins/languages we've included), but installation, upgrades, and maintenance are all handled for you!
So if you have already developed some of your WordPress blog (entered a few posts, or even had it going for several weeks or month) and now want more control over it, you need to convert it to an Advanced install.
Advanced install
Basically what you want is a brand-new install of WordPress -- but using the same database and database tables as your old Easy install. So, your steps are:
1) Delete your Easy install. This will only remove the website files -- it will leave the database alone. You can do that here: https://panel.dreamhost.com/index.cgi?tree=goodies.installer&
Click on "Modify / remove previously installed software (easy)?" and then click on "Delete this domain".
It can take a few minutes to a few hours for the DNS to update correctly (easy installs are housed on a different server than the rest of your sites), so the system needs to clear it out and release the sub-domain so that it is available to add again.
Go have a snack or something like that, then come back and add the sub-domain that you had the easy install at to your hosting: https://panel.dreamhost.com/index.cgi?tree=domain.manage&
(If it tells you "DNS already in system" then you might need to wait a little longer, unfortunately!)
Once you have the sub-domain added, go back to the One-Click Install panel and install WordPress as an advanced install. For the database information, use the database and user from the easy install: https://panel.dreamhost.com/index.cgi?tree=goodies.mysql&
Once you get the email that WordPress has been successfully installed, go to the setup link. To make sure that all the old posts from the easy install are pulled into the advanced install, make sure that you are using the same table prefix. You can check what tables have data in your phpMyAdmin web interface (you can access it from your MySQL Databases page: https://panel.dreamhost.com/index.cgi?tree=goodies.mysql&) and see what is the prefix on those tables. It usually is something like "wp_123456789_"
Then you should be all set with an install that you can customize to your heart's content!
