i've been trying [unsuccessfully] since my last post to get modx working on my godaddy hosting. have reuploaded the files in case i messed that up... created a new database in case i messed that up... reentered passwords for my database in case i messed that up... and still having no joy...
i've emailed godaddy and they replied: 'We will need to know the permissions that the database requires in order to determine why you are unable to connect to the database. As this is not our product, we are not aware of the permission requirements.'
does anybody know what they would need information-wise in response to that? susan ottwell and bob ray, you were both kind enough to help me in the past with starting to get this sorted out, if you or any other nice folk would be inclined, i'd be very grateful if you would have a stickybeak around my files [am happy to email to email my ftp details, could give you my email address so yours wouldnt have to be shown to everyone] and see if i'm missing something? because i am stumped. again, am sure it's me, no doubt at all that i'm missing something, just not sure what...

Kathleen, if you're getting a message during the MODx install saying it can't connect to the database, it's not a permission issue. It almost always means that the info in modx's config.inc.php (in the /manager/includes dir.) doesn't match what's in your database.
One problem I had when I first used MODx was that I created the database but hadn't actually created a USER in the database. The screens to do this can be confusing and it's easy to think you've created a user without doing it (or to assume that you are automatically the user).
On the cPanel at my host, you select "MySQL Databases" Then select the modx db, then scroll down to enter the username and password and click on "add user." It will tell you that the user has been created but it will lie to you about the username. When you go back to the original MySQL Databases page, you'll see the real username, usually prefixed with your username at the host. You'll also see the real name of the DB there. Those values, and the password you just created, are what go in the config.inc.php file. It will typically look something like this assuming that kread is the name you use to log on to your Cpanel, modx is the name you gave the dbase, JoeBlow is your new user, and his password is BiteMe. Remember that everything is case-sensitive.
$database_type = 'mysql';
$database_server = 'localhost';
$database_user = 'kread_JoeBlow';
$database_password = 'BiteMe';
$database_connection_charset = '';
$dbase = 'kread_modx';
$table_prefix = 'modx_';
error_reporting(E_ALL & ~E_NOTICE);
Hope this helps.