thanks pegasus
actually, i think the error was after step 3 - scrolling through the error messages it looks like it was actually doing step 4 when it croaked out with that error. I can see the plugin in my VB control panel, i've disabled it (it showed up as version 0.0.0.0 so I guess it never finished installing fully. once disabled, private.php worked again.
is it still OK to re-run the installer with the post-October 30th code? should i manually remove the plugin first?
thanks!!