1. I'm using OpenSuse myself, so the paths to the Apache config files might be different to Ubuntu. But you might also have the directory /etc/apache2 where the main Apache config files are stores. In case you have configured a virtual host or intend to do so, you might also have a directory /etc/apache2/vhosts.d.

If you are not installing Elgg using a virtual host on your computer but for example in /home/username/public_html/elgg, you should be able to add the AllowOverride directive to the Apache http.conf file in /etc/apache2. Add the lines

<Directory "/home/username/public_html/elgg">
   AllowOverride All
</Directory>

In case of a virtual host configuration there's a separate virtual_hostname.conf in /etc/apache2/vhosts.d (at least that's where it is on OpenSuse). Basically, you need to add the same lines to the virtual host configuration file. Or in case the <Directory> directive is already included for the Elgg root directory you can simply add the AllowOverride line.

2. I'm not sure about the config-dist.php question. You might refer to the htaccess_dist file?? This file is used to create Elgg's .htaccess file (simply by copying/renaming during the installation). If the automatic creation of .htaccess fails, you can do the same on your own, i.e. copy the file htaccess_dist to .htaccess (the you keep the original file in case you make modifications in .htaccess).

http://www.installationwiki.org/Installing_Elgg is for versions of Elgg before 1.0. Please ignore it.

Thanks guys. I also tried using the installation document that was included when I downloaded the software. However, I found that it was written with someone slightly more technical than me in mind. Although it was a step by step instruction set, the level of detail was insufficient to enable a newb to use it.

I will try and go through the community pages to see if there is anything that can assist further for at the moment I am 2 days in and have not even been able to complete the installation yet.