Fix: How to use secure permissions with MODx (Using 755 / 644 instead of 777 / 666)

The fix:
Change PHP to run from CGI/Fast CGI rather than Apache

The anecdote:
I was tearing my hair out for two days straight: I could only get ModX to install if I had permissions set to 777 / 666. I'm on a VPS+_Plesk+Centos+Apache environment. Obviously I want 755 / 644 for better security. I contacted the webhost and they were not helpful. Was at a loss until I started reading about PHP suexec – to get this to work PHP has to run on CGI/FCGI NOT through Apache. So anyway, I've changed the settings now to run through CGI and balance is restored. In plesk there's a dropdown for beside each site which gives you the option to change where PHP comes from.

Hope this helps someone somewhere.
Shaun

As a followup (if anyone stumbles across this). I managed to get ModX working on my VPS with PHP running through Apache.

I simply followed the mini-tutorial on setting up permissions here http://serverfault.com/questions/6895/whats-the-best-way-of-handling-permissions-for-apache2s-user-www-data-in-var

There's also an Apache module for handling suexec if PHP is run as an Apache module

http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.0/mod/mod_suexec.html