Weird for the password setting.
The second method worked, that's even better! (Directly on the SD card) I think it is OK to chmod them,but I would revert it to original afterwards just to make sure everything works perfectly (aka as original).
I would make a further recommendation, take a copy of the whole www directory, modify it locally and simply replace the original www directory (after doing a backup, for sure). So you can do local testing without having to swap the card over and over again. Keeping permissions as before, of course.
The second method worked, that's even better! (Directly on the SD card) I think it is OK to chmod them,but I would revert it to original afterwards just to make sure everything works perfectly (aka as original).
I would make a further recommendation, take a copy of the whole www directory, modify it locally and simply replace the original www directory (after doing a backup, for sure). So you can do local testing without having to swap the card over and over again. Keeping permissions as before, of course.