If there's an onlineupgrade.php, installer index.php will link to that instead of upgrade.php (future readiness ;))
# Used for testing mod_rewrite.
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule (.*) install.php?do=modrewrite_test&str=$1
</IfModule>