Minimal configuration required

[motechman]

OK, I've spent about an hour reading all the stickies and searching and trying to find an answer & the best place to post, so here goes
(I tried to find a FAQ with minimal steps to show a single product but no go).

Installation was straightforward, no issues. Using VM 2.0.8e on Joomla 2.56 w/PHP 5.3.1 (Apache/2.2.14 (Unix) DAV/2 mod_ssl/2.2.14 OpenSSL/0.9.8l PHP/5.3.1 mod_perl/2.0.4 Perl/v5.10.1, MySQL client version: 5.1.44, PHP extension: mysql).

I can display the "Front Page" (Joomla menu item type under VirtueMart), but when I click on the product category image I get only the product category description. One line of text, nothing else.

Changed the menu item to "Product Details Layout" menu item type.  These are the VM menu item types for 2.0.8e:
        Shopping Cart
        VirtueMart Categories Layout
        Category Layout
        Manufacturer Default Layout
        Manufacturer Details Layout
        List Orders
        Product Details Layout
        Account Maintenance
        User Edit Address
        Displays vendor contact
        Displays vendors
        Displays vendor details
        View vendor TOS
        Front page

Then selected the only product I defined. Yes, it has a product category. When I click on the menu item the server never responds, at least that's what it looks like. I click stop on the browser. Nav to another page. I see a list of 404 errors (404 The requested product does not exist.).

What am I doing wrong, what have I missed? I have published the product. It looks like I have provided all the required info, but the 404 is a clue something major is missing.

A minimal 1 product config steps would really help us newbies to VM out alot and probably reduct the posts here. I just couldn't find relevant info after considerable effort.

I do realize you all provide assistance for free, and for that I for one am grateful.

Anything you might do to point me in the right direction would be most appreciated.

Thanks people!