<p>I am looking for instructions on how to setup a PEAR channel for our project so that we can deploy it with the pear installer. I have searched the web for a while and cannot find any straightforward information. I followed <a href="http://greg.chiaraquartet.net/archives/123-Setting-up-your-own-PEAR-channel-with-Chiara_PEAR_Server-the-official-way.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">this tutorial</a> for a while, but I am having a hell of a time getting this to work. Does anyone know how to do this? Is there a simpler way?</p>

It looks like you are one of the few people who want to do this. That tutorial you linked to appears to be the latest (!) but the package is still
somewhat in development
. The documentation in that package is also non-existent. It looks like it's up to you to write the docs. Or maybe contact
Greg Beaver
; the author of the package and blog post you linked to. He also
wrote a book about PEAR
(albeit in 2006.) The amazon writeup mentions this:
Next, you will learn how to set up
  your own PEAR Channel for distributing
  PHP applications, both open-source and
  proprietary closed-source PHP
  applications that can be secured using
  technology already built into the PEAR
  Installer
.