I have two homes and have bought several of these gates.  My installations are difficult because one and sometimes both sides of the gate are iron bannister rails.  With the gate adaptors (bought separately), installation was quite easy.  When installing against a wall, you are supposed to use the "cups" provided, and this requires drilling a small hole into the wall.  IMHO this is absolutely NOT necessary; I cut up a mouse pad and simply insterted a scrap of the pad where the installation post (or whatever it's called - the part that you screw tight and that holds the gate to the wall)- and it works just fine, not only to hold the thing in place but also to protect the wall or, when using the gate adaptors, the bannister rail.  There is a knack to screwing these gates into place, and it would have been helpful had the instructions mentioned this.  Too bad there isn't room here for me to describe it . . .