CiviCRM 4.4.alpha3 and Joomla 3.1.5

Downloaded package civicrm-4.4.alpha3-joomla.zip and tried installing it under fresh Joomla! 3.1.5.

1) Followed installation instructions, unzipped civicrm-4.4.alpha3-joomla.zip under /var/www/joomla_arena/tmp/com_civicrm/

2) Changed permissions for Apache to be able to access files with chown -R www-data.www-data under tmp/com_civicrm (Please note that this is something you don't mention explisitely in the documents. Many might use root to unzip the file after which the permissions should be set right)

3) Logged in the administration page, went to Extensions -> Extension Manager -> Install -> Install from directory.

4) Entered full path to the installation location, in this case /var/www/joomla_arena/tmp/com_civicrm

5) Clicked "Install"

Resulted in an empty page.

Checked Apache error log, found the following:

[Mon Sep 02 17:43:41 2013] [error] [client 88.112.191.18] PHP Warning: fopen(/var/www/joomla_arena/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/templates/CRM/common/civicrm.settings.php.tpl): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /var/www/joomla_arena/libraries/joomla/filesystem/file.php on line 312, referer: http://shop.jalkapalloarena.fi/administrator/index.php?option=com_installer
[Mon Sep 02 17:43:41 2013] [error] [client 88.112.191.18] PHP Warning: fopen(/var/www/joomla_arena/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/templates/CRM/common/civicrm.settings.php.tpl): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /var/www/joomla_arena/libraries/joomla/filesystem/file.php on line 312, referer: http://shop.jalkapalloarena.fi/administrator/index.php?option=com_installer
[Mon Sep 02 17:43:41 2013] [error] [client 88.112.191.18] PHP Warning: require_once(DB.php): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /var/www/joomla_arena/tmp/com_civicrm/admin/configure.php on line 155, referer: http://shop.jalkapalloarena.fi/administrator/index.php?option=com_installer

Checked the installation folder, found civicrm.zip with file named templates/CRM/common/civicrm.settings.php.template. Changed the name to -> civicrm.settings.php.tpl

Zipped the civicrm up again, put it in the same place as before and tried install again.

This time got message:

"
Warning

JInstaller: :Install: Cannot find Joomla XML setup file

JInstaller: :Install: Cannot find XML setup file
Message

Installing component was successful.
"

Now the CiviCRM modules became visible in Extensions -> Manage page (CiviCRM, CiviCRM QuickIcon, CiviCRM System Listener and CiviCRM User Management), but CiviCRM is completely missing from the Components drop-down menu.

So it seems that installation of this package has not been tested under latest stable Joomla 3.1.5, because file name was wrong in the package and even fixing that does not result in correct installation.

If you have an alternative package of CiviCRM that you would recommend to be used for Joomla 3.1.5, we'd be grateful for that information.

Best regards,
Jani Tolonen