I successfully completed the install process, but could not get into the Admin CP, and also could not see the "home" page for Photopost. After searching this forum, I found a code snippet for adm-inc.php that allowed you to enter your IP address and bypass the standard authentication procedure. That got me into the control panel, and after that I was able to get into Photopost and things appeared to work normally. I reverted adm-inc.php to the default version, and things still worked fine, or so it appeared. Note that I could do everything--upload pictures, post comments, change admin settings, etc.
Before continuing with the problem description, let me note that I've checked the following.
Both
vB and PP cookie settings are identical, as follows:
cookie path: /
cookie prefix: bb
cookie domain: blank
PP is sharing the database with
vB, and PP's directory is within the forum home directory, so main URLs look like this if working properly:
/domain/forumhome/index.php (
vB)
/domain/forumhome/photopost/index.php (PP)
The problem is that when a user enters PP, he can see the "home" screen (index.php), but activating any link (other than
vB forum links) sends you to a strange "not logged in" screen. It's strange because it's a standard
vB page:
vBulletin Message
You are not logged in or you do not have permission to access this page. This could be due to one of several reasons:
1. You are not logged in. Fill in the form at the bottom of this page and try again.
2. You may not have sufficient privileges to access this page. Are you trying to edit someone else's post, access administrative features or some other privileged system?
3. If you are trying to post, the administrator may have disabled your account, or it may be awaiting activation.
Not quite normal, however, as it is in browser default font, white background, no graphics, and the time shown has a GMT-4 offset, which is incorrect (should be GMT-5). More significantly, all the links on the page are structured wrong, as follows:
"register link"
correct version -- domain/forumhome/register.php
displayed version -- domain/forumhome/photopost/register.php
Every link on the page has the same problem--the PP home directory is being inserted after the
vB home directory. As you would expect, login does not work from this page, giving a "not found" error. The only link that does not behave like this is to the Admin CP (adm-index.php), which gives a PP login screen that will not accept my login info and takes me to the same non-standard
vB login screen discussed above.
This was the problem I was seeing before bypassing standard authentication with the temporary alteration to adm-inc.php. However, things stayed OK for me after reverting adm-inc.php to default, so I thought the problem was gone. Testing by other users shows that they are having the same problem that I was. Even worse, while trying to understand what was going on, I deleted my cookies, and now I have the same problem as everyone else. Possibly I forced the production of some sort of "magic cookie" that made things work for me with the code alteration, but that's a band-aid, not a solution to the problem.
====================================
I found the solution, thanks to repeated comments from Chuck about looking at the cookies. There was a disagreement in how the URLs were configured between vBulletin and Photopost. One had the domain as "http://www.domain.com/etc/etc", the other had it as "http://domain.com/etc/etc/". A small difference, but enough to generate two sets of cookies that existed independently of each other. The fix required both editing the config.int AND changing the settings file via phpmyadmin.
The moral of the story is that consistency is important! I hope this is a help if anyone else gets stuck in this situation... 
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