Problem with nominatim own server

I've downloaded the osm virtual machine here:

http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Virtual_machine_image

...and patched the local.php file (for the "declaration allowed only at the start of the document" error). It appears to be working fine, except for the following issue:

I understand there are two ways to query for an address:

 q=<query>
   Query string to search for.  Alternatively can be entered as:

and

 street=<housenumber> <streetname>
 city=<city>
 county=<county>
 state=<state>
 country=<country>
 postalcode=<postalcode>
   (experimental) Alternative query string format for structured requests. 
   Structured requests are faster and require less server resources. 
   DO NOT COMBINE WITH q=<query> PARAMETER.

However, the first way works, and the second one gets me no results. I thought it could be a problem with the address formatting but if I use the same query on the public nominatim server (instead of my own) I get results.

Check the public server output:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<searchresults timestamp='Wed, 04 Dec 13 05:50:52 +0000' attribution='Data ?? OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL 1.0. http://www.openstreetmap.org/copyright' querystring='andes 1479, montevideo, montevideo, uruguay' polygon='false' exclude_place_ids='96424832,57980898,70445266' more_url='http://nominatim.openstreetmap.org/search?format=xml&amp;exclude_place_ids=96424832,57980898,70445266&amp;q=andes+1479%2C+montevideo%2C+montevideo%2C+uruguay'>
<place place_id='96424832' osm_type='way' osm_id='179061638' place_rank='26' boundingbox="-34.9064064025879,-34.9008026123047,-56.1986999511719,-56.1981239318848" lat='-34.9035605' lon='-56.1984301' display_name='Andes, Ciudad Vieja, Montevideo, 11100, Uruguay' class='highway' type='residential' importance='0.9'/><place place_id='57980898' osm_type='way' osm_id='78105349' place_rank='26' boundingbox="-34.9114799499512,-34.9064025878906,-56.198127746582,-56.1972122192383" lat='-34.9092104' lon='-56.1978327' display_name='Andes, Barrio Sur, Montevideo, 11100, Uruguay' class='highway' type='residential' importance='0.9'/><place place_id='70445266' osm_type='way' osm_id='112698692' place_rank='26' boundingbox="-34.8365058898926,-34.8350563049316,-55.9612350463867,-55.9585113525391" lat='-34.8357171' lon='-55.9597648' display_name='Andes, Solymar, Ciudad de la Costa, Canelones, Uruguay' class='highway' type='residential' importance='0.7'/></searchresults>

and my local server output:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<searchresults timestamp='Wed, 04 Dec 13 05:50:59 +0000' attribution='Data ?? OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL 1.0. http://www.openstreetmap.org/copyright' querystring='' polygon='false' more_url='http://localhost/nominatim/search?format=xml&amp;exclude_place_ids=&amp;accept-language=&amp;q='>
</searchresults>

In both cases, I'm using the same query:

http://<public server or private server>/search?format=xml&street=andes+1479&city=montevideo&county=&state=montevideo&country=uruguay&postalcode=

I don't know if it has something to do; but the virtual server need some minor "corrections" (?); one if to edit the local.php file (I did it) but the other one, downloading and replacing the get-coastlines.sh file, can't did it (can't overwrite existing file, and I don't have root password)

I appreciate any help! Regards!