Re: New install just gets 404 errors
You take that code and paste it into a file named .htaccess if this file does not exist create it and upload it to the site root.
As for the WP codex page, it has the essential information, sometimes that has to be read a few times to be able to digest satisfactorily sometimes one might have to do little bits of further research if certain terms and processes are unfamiliar.
If problems persist with file permissions you may need to be looking at your server group permissions, in case the server (generally ‘Apache’) is not a member of correct group, the server must be able to write to certain files / directories and it isn’t always simply a file or folder level permission issue.
One other aspect to check is that you are not running PHP ‘Safe Mode’ this will cause issues and need disabling.
P.S. Apologies but I didn’t see your initial response to my comment.
