Got the installer working. Fixed a few bugs including a nasty-to-debug issue where the lang_id was being hardcoded during installation, resulting in strings being inserted with the wrong lang_id causing an infinfinite loop with fetch() throwing a "no strings" error and using template (which calls fetch()) to complain

.mcePageBreak {display:block;border:0;width:100%;height:12px;border-top:1px dotted #ccc;margin-top:15px;background:#fff url(../img/pagebreak.gif) no-repeat center top;}