[support] profiles problem - newbie

I am getting the message " No profiles available We were unable to find any installer profiles. Installer profiles tell us what modules to enable and what schema to install in the database. A profile is necessary to continue with the installation process." This is on a new site I am attempting to set up in a somewhat non-standard environment and I am unfamiliar with profiles. How can I get started? Googling didn't quite do it for me. Marty