I'm having problems. I have an XP Pro box, fairly standard. No Visual Studio or development tools, just a normal machine. IIS had been on the machine previously but was uninstalled long ago.

The steps I've taken to get to where I'm at:

1.  Re-installed IIS with default options. ASP.Net 2.0 is already installed on the machine, so...
2. used aspnet_regiis.exe to reinstall .net it into IIS (just in case)
3. Downloaded and installed SQL Server Express 2005 & Management Studio.
4. Rebooted.
5. Logged on and downloaded DotNetNuke_4.0.2_Install.zip from this web site.
   
6. Unzipped into a folder outside c:\inetpub\wwwroot
7. Downloaded DotNetNuke_template.zip (from a 3rd party site, but checked out a few to make sure there wasn't any differences) and unzipped the file to the Providers\DataProviders\SqlDataProvider folder (this contains the missing "DotNetNuke_template.mdf" that doesn't appear to be in the DotNetNuke_4.0.2_Install.zip file; documentation talks about it so I presume I need it).
   
8. Put a virtual into IIS called "portal",  pointing at the place I put DNN. Gave it read, execute and browse.
9. Went to file system security tab (explorer) and gave ASPNET modify rights on the folder (too much probably), and told the permissions to replace on subdirectories.
10. Renamed release.config to web.config.
11. Went to http://localhost/portal/default.aspx
    
12. got this:

Error Installing DotNetNuke
Current Assembly Version: 04.00.02
ERROR: Could not connect to database specified in connectionString for SqlDataProviderSystem.Data.SqlClient.SqlException: An attempt to attach an auto-named database for file C:\Inetpub\DNN\App_Data\Database.mdf failed. A database with the same name exists, or specified file cannot be opened, or it is located on UNC share. at System.Data.ProviderBase.DbConnectionPool.GetConnection(DbConnection owningObject) at (etc)

This isn't the first time I've been through all this. The first time around I discovered about the missing DB in the zip file, and also discovered that DNN running on 2005 just didn't like not running a named instance (I don't normally run an instance) and that fiddling with the connection settings just wouldn't work. Hence trying it all on a blank machine and installing everything from scratch - still borked. Anyway: this should work because everything is fresh and windows authentication is working to the database and the default database now exists. A suitable solution should not include installing visual studio or having to recompile anything.

Suggestions?

I already have questions about your setup, tho' you might have just omitted those steps from your post.

First -- Did you modify the web.config app and database sections to reflect your setup?
Two -- You mentioned nothing about setting up permissions - Did you give the proper permissions on the website?
Three -- Why are you creating a virtual directory for DNN?  I tried that and failed, but decided to keep things simple and install DNN in the web root (Inetpub\wwwroot) and worked perfectly there.......

---

Shadow

1. The documentation suggests that it should create a database authomatically when running sql2005 on the default instance with windows authentication. All that should be neccesary is to rename the release.config to web.config - no creating blank databases or anything.

2. Yes, I gave proper permissions to the one and only website that WP Pro lets you have. This is not a server product that lets you run multiple sites.

3. Because I'd expect to be able to house all those files outside the root, because there might be other files I want to have in the root. And it's supposed to work this way.

Funny, I've never had that problem in the past on other machines where I've put IIS on after .net2. If dotnet wasn't working how would I have been seeing even the initial error? I guess that something more to try - yet another step.

But this means having VS on the machine in the first place. I'm aware that I can install a starter kit version (or the whole mega version from the dvd) and do the iis / database setup from within that, but that seems like a rediculous workaround when a plain install scenario "unzip and run" is said to run by the documentation.

You'd think someone would package up an installer for the damned thing.