So, I've tracked this down to the initial database setup at install. Clearly the library wasn't inserting the default theme name in the require statements above.
The tables mostly looked fine, but being a new person to Osclass, I can't know what I don't know. Anyhow, there was a post mentioning a setting in the preferences table to specify the theme. That setting wasn't there, so I figured table population failed at install.
Checking syslog for MySQL logs gave the following:
Jan 31 17:26:36 base mysqld: InnoDB: Unable to lock ./site/oc_t_plugin_category.ibd, error: 37
Jan 31 17:26:36 base mysqld: 160131 17:26:36 InnoDB: Error creating file './sellmyboomstick/oc_t_plugin_category.ibd'.
Jan 31 17:26:36 base mysqld: 160131 17:26:36 InnoDB: Operating system error number 37 in a file operation.
Jan 31 17:26:36 base mysqld: InnoDB: Error number 37 means 'No locks available'.
Jan 31 17:26:36 base mysqld: InnoDB: Some operating system error numbers are described at
Jan 31 17:26:36 base mysqld: InnoDB: http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.5/en/operating-system-error-codes.html
I tried increasing my ulimit, which didn't help either. So I'm not sure why InnoDB can't lock the files but that seems to be the root of the issues right now.
Also of note is that for some reason the "oc_t_item_description" table is being created as MyISAM.