I'm wondering if anyone else has encountered this error trying to install Vanilla 2. When I hit Continue on the initial install screen I get a 500 internal server error and my PHP error logs show this message:
"Request exceeded the limit of 10 internal redirects due to probable configuration error."
I think this suggests that the installer is trying to execute an infinite redirect loop. Changing the permissions on my folders as the install.txt file suggests has no effect.
I don't get anything written to the log though. I agree with your suspicion – it looks very much like a problem with the redirects in .htaccess causing an infinite loop.
rewrite or internal redirection cycle while processing "/forum/index.php/index.php/index.php/index.php/index.php/index.php/index.php/index.php/index.php/index.php/index.php/index.php/garden/gardensetup