Maybe I'll add some more detail to my troubles. CPG returns this message
Warning: chmod(): Operation not permitted in /home/httpd/vhosts/diggerball.com/httpdocs/photos/include/picmgmt.inc.php on line 243
albums/thailand/normal_DSC00205.JPGupdated succesfully!
Now this struck me as strange since I'd thought everything (folder and files) had permission 777. So before I posted my last message I check and noticed that apache had grabbed ownership of the intermediates and thumbs created by coppermine. So I went and CHOWNed the albums and then went though and CHMODed the pics I wanted to resize to 777. I received the same error, so then I tried 755 (just to be sure) but no difference. This is when I posted the last message.
Since then I have read through as much relevant material as possible, I am confused since when I use GD I receive the a chmod error but the new larger intermediates are written over the old ones, but with imagemagick they dont overwrite even though I get the exact same message. I tried working with GD some more and found that only some of the larger pictures gave the allowed_memory error (obviously) but it stil surprised me since I upped the value in the php.ini to 32MB and the files that are failing are 3072 by 2304, so according to what I'd read in another thread the memory calculation is like this (3072*2304*3)/1048576=20.25MB Now thats a ways under 32MB however I dont know how much else CPG is using up. The pictures that GD will resize now (after fixing the ownership issue) are 2048 by 1536, so (2048*1536*3)/1048576=9MB, considerably less. So I suppose if I jack up the allowed memory then the larger pics will probably pass through, but I've not read of anyone raising their limit past 32MB so is it just because they dont have pictures this big? I'm also still baffled by my original question, why IM says creation succesful with chmod error and no memory errors even for the largest pics, but wont overwrite.