Hello, I'm new to this and very confused... please help me understand why I am being asked to do a new install of Joomla for the slave site, when my template had the "Share the whole site" option enabled?

I am trying to do achieve the following, which sounds like it should be a very basic scenario:

Basically, I want to do what is said here, on page 14 of the user manual:
"when [share the whole site is] enabled, it means that in fact you want to the
same DB connection than the website defined in the template. In this case,
only the “configuration.php” is copied and you can just give a new title to
your website or defined a specifiy directory for its deployment and template
folders. This may be usefull when you want share the same website between
all domains and just change the “themes” content."

I want to have a slave site that uses the SAME database as the master and MOST of the same folders, but simply uses a different templates folder. I understand (and want) to be able to set the template as, say, "Beez" in the master, and have "Beez" look one way on the master site, but differently on the subdomain because of customizations to the Beez template in the subdomain. I am attempting to install this slave site in the master site (e.g., /public_html/multisites/subdomain) and will point a subdomain at this directory.

I have tried the following:
- I created a template that had <Master site> selected, and "Share the whole site" enabled. I then created a new site based on this template. HOWEVER, when I attempt to access the site, I am asked to install Joomla. So I did (though this seemed odd) and sure enough, what I got was a fresh install of joomla. I was expecting to see an exact copy of the master site.

- I created a new site -- not based on a template -- again selecting "- Master DB" in the Templates select menu, and checking the "Share the whole site" option. I left all other fields blank, per the video tutorial. The result is that I do NOT get the install (which makes sense, since I am using the same DB) but now I see nothing when I navigate directly to the subdomain. Also, in the folder /multisites/site_id, I see only the cache and cgi-bin folders, and a file called config_multisites.php.

I promise: I have been through the tutorials and the manual! WHAT AM I MISSING?

Thanks in advance for a prompt reply! I'm a bit desperate here, after struggling with this for HOURS...

Amy

Before click on the "whole site", enter a new site prefix value with exactly the same value as the master prefix value.

I suspect that it does not see that you want to share the whole site.
When the "new table prefix" is identical to the website that you want to replicate, you share the whole site.