I'm trying to use the CMS File & Images -> upload to get the pictures onto the server (remotely). I get the error:

"Website Error
There has been an error
The website server has not been able to respond to your request."

I haven't adjusted any code.

Try again but this time put ?isDev=1 (or &isDev=1 if the URL already has a ?) on the end of the URL. That should put the site in dev mode and give you a more usable error message.

[Warning] copy(/var/www/www.earlyyearsniagara.org/htdocs/assets/test.jpg) [function.copy]: failed to open stream: Permission denied
POST /admin/assets/UploadForm

Line 195 in /var/www/www.earlyyearsniagara.org/htdocs/sapphire/filesystem/Folder.php
Source

186 Filesystem::makeFolder(dirname("$base/$file"));
187
188 while(file_exists("$base/$file")) {
189 $i = isset($i) ? ($i+1) : 2;
190 $oldFile = $file;
191 $file = ereg_replace('[0-9]*(\.[^.]+$)',$i . '\\1', $file);
192 if($oldFile == $file && $i > 2) user_error("Couldn't fix $file with $i", E_USER_ERROR);
193 }
194
195 if(file_exists($tmpFile['tmp_name']) && copy($tmpFile['tmp_name'], "$base/$file")) {
196 // Update with the new image
197 return $this->constructChild(basename($file));
198 } else {
199 user_error("Folder::addUploadToFolder: Couldn't copy '$tmpFile[tmp_name]' to '$file'", E_USER_ERROR);
200 return false;
201 }

Trace

* copy(/tmp/phpJzgj9J,/var/www/www.earlyyearsniagara.org/htdocs/assets/commitedcfg.cfg)
Line 195 of Folder.php
* Folder->addUploadToFolder(Array)
Line 217 of AssetAdmin.php
* AssetAdmin->doUpload(Array,Form,HTTPRequest)
Line 241 of Form.php
* Form->httpSubmission(HTTPRequest)
Line 129 of RequestHandler.php
* RequestHandler->handleRequest(HTTPRequest)
Line 143 of RequestHandler.php
* RequestHandler->handleRequest(HTTPRequest)
Line 122 of Controller.php
* Controller->handleRequest(HTTPRequest)
Line 277 of Director.php
* Director::handleRequest(HTTPRequest,Session)
Line 121 of Director.php
* Director::direct(/admin/assets/UploadForm)
Line 118 of main.php

Do I just need to increase the permissions?

I just overcame this problem by changing the permissions of the assets folder to 777

Thanks man, you just saved me hours of work.
Also make sure to look up with ls -la the Apache User in Ubuntu. Standard user is www-data and group www-data.
To change open secure shell and do a chown -R www-data:www-data ./assets
This is a quick fix so your client won't go mad. In the meantime you can check if you really should give full permissions
to all files contained in /assets.

Have a great time!

Frank