Safer method to make write permissions for Joomla 1.6 installation.
Run these two commands from ‘su’ or ‘root’ within joomla install directory (assuming that you have ‘apache’ user for httpd):
chgrp -R apache administrator/components administrator/language administrator/language/en-GB administrator/language/overrides administrator/manifests/files administrator/manifests/libraries administrator/manifests/packages administrator/modules administrator/templates components images images/banners images/sampledata language language/en-GB language/overrides libraries media modules plugins plugins/authentication plugins/content plugins/editors plugins/editors-xtd plugins/extension plugins/search plugins/system plugins/user templates configuration.php cache administrator/cache logs tmp
chmod -R g+w,o-rwx administrator/components administrator/language administrator/language/en-GB administrator/language/overrides administrator/manifests/files administrator/manifests/libraries administrator/manifests/packages administrator/modules administrator/templates components images images/banners images/sampledata language language/en-GB language/overrides libraries media modules plugins plugins/authentication plugins/content plugins/editors plugins/editors-xtd plugins/extension plugins/search plugins/system plugins/user templates configuration.php cache administrator/cache logs tmp