EDIT: Ignore the <br/> html. I cannot figure out why it keeps adding those in my post.
I think I may have fixed this (using apache). Along with the setting of the permissions to www-data, I also restructured the custom.css file.
Originally it looked like this:
`:root {<br />
–header-bg:<br />
#5f5f5f;<br />
–header-title-color:<br />
#ffffff;<br />
–nav-bar-bg:<br />
#c82222;<br />
–nav-bar-link:<br />
#ffffff;<br />
–stickybar:<br />
#5f5f5f;<br />
–mobile-menu-bg:<br />
#e3e3e4;<br />
–mobile-link-color:<br />
#5f5f5f;<br />
}`
I simply removed the carriage returns to look like this:
`:root {<br />
–header-bg:#5f5f5f;<br />
–header-title-color:#ffffff;<br />
–nav-bar-bg:#c82222;<br />
–nav-bar-link:#ffffff;<br />
–stickybar:#5f5f5f;<br />
–mobile-menu-bg:#e3e3e4;<br />
–mobile-link-color:#5f5f5f;<br />
}`
Now the Create a Custom theme part of the settings works properly for me.
I hope this helps you.