Issues installing Drupal 7 Commons

I have a number of not for profit clients that would love to use drupal commons.

We just can not get it installed. Most of them use hosted webspace on a shared server - so we don't have access to the php.ini and we have one DB per domain - so use the table prefix for each application.

I managed to get over a few issues by adding info to the .htaccess file.

I am only seeing about 30 DB tables installed not the 70+ I should have and I get as far as entering the site info and then get a blank screen - after adding some debug I can see:

Call to undefined function field_attach_load() in /var/www/www.website.com/htdocs/includes/entity.inc on line 320

I have googled and search the forum and can see this appears to be a bit of a known error - but I can't work around to get it working. I am close to giving up and looking for a new solution.

I have used drupal in the past and have found it a really great solution - but I have wasted a few hours trying to install when in the past I have had it installed, configured and customised by now.

the server is PHP Version 5.6.8

Any quick fix ? I really don't want to waste any more time .. I just want it installed and running.