--- a/install/includes/cli-core.php	Fri Jan 16 13:14:08 2009 -0500
+++ b/install/includes/cli-core.php	Fri Jan 23 21:59:03 2009 -0500
@@ -314,7 +314,10 @@
 if ( !$result )
 {
   if ( !$silent )
+  {
     echo parse_shellcolor_string($lang->get('cli_test_fail')) . "\n";
+    echo "[$driver] " . $dbal->sql_error() . "\n";
+  }
   installer_fail($lang->get('cli_err_db_connect_fail'));
 }
 

--- a/install/install-cli.php	Fri Jan 16 13:14:08 2009 -0500
+++ b/install/install-cli.php	Fri Jan 23 21:59:03 2009 -0500
@@ -17,5 +17,7 @@
  * Thanks to Stephan for helping out with l10n in the installer (his work is in includes/stages/*.php).
  */
 
-require(dirname(__FILE__) . '/includes/cli-core.php');
+echo "INSTALLER STARTED\n";
+$result = require(dirname(__FILE__) . '/includes/cli-core.php');
+exit( $result ? 0 : 1 );