I got the code here: http://doc.silverstripe.com/doku.php?id=common-problems#installation_problems
the real answer was this one:
User 'getwas' needs to be able to write to this file:
/usr/www/users/getwas/.htaccess
and this one:
mod_rewrite enabled I can't tell whether mod_rewrite is running.
You may need to configure a rewriting rule yourself.