phpmyadmin/setup webserver writable config folder

Hi,

I'm trying to get phpmyadmin/setup working here on Ubuntu 10.04 LTS. I've worked out how to set the password to access it, but am puzzled about how the setup page works.

When I first got to it, there was an error message at the top of the page as follows:

Cannot load or save configuration
Please create web server writable folder config in phpMyAdmin top level directory as described in documentation. Otherwise you will be only able to download or display it.

I've read the instructions and started doing what they asked. Eg. I created a folder called 'config' in /usr/share/phpmyadmin, and as per the error message used chmod 770 (for the moment). Error message didn't go away.

So I issued the command /usr/sbin/pma-configure, and the error went away.

I made some small changes to the setup, saved them.

I looked into the config folder, no files there, though the changes I made were saved.

I then issued the command /usr/sbin/pma-secure, lo and behold, the error returned (as per the warning given by pma-secure).

I get the impression that to use the setup page, I need consol access to issue the pma commands.

Hmmm, is this how it's intended? What's the point of the config folder if the setting changes are saved into the /usr/share/phpmyadmin/config.inc.php file? I've deleted the config folder for now as I don't have any further changes I wish to make at the moment.

Is there a way of achieving this through use of the browser only? (Somehow I don't think so.)

Cheers,

Nap