@ubestbsteppin If i remember correctly, you are presented a login screen just lack credentials (doing a manual install). I would suggest continuing down this path by adding a username:password as suggested before trying the installer again. Otherwise, I am not quite sure what is needed other than permissions. If you can edit the php.ini are you sure you cannot get any Apache/PHP error logs?
Edit: In order to debug could you private message me your config but remove any sensitive information, please (password and IP). Then do a detailed file list on your log/password files so I may ascertain their permissions to try and pinpoint the issue. Send the file list via PM as well.