Do i need to make a new database for it or just use the same database as the Joomla component when installing SMF?

There is no one right answer to your question.  If you use separate databases, there are additional setup steps to "bridge" the databases.  These instructions are in the installation guide, I never used them, so I can't help you there.

If you use the same database, the setup is easier.  It would be more difficult, perhaps, to back up the website tables separately from the forum tables.  Depending on the size of your site and forum, this might not even be desirable.  This is the solution I used, but "your mileage may vary."

So the answer to your question is "either."   

Ed,

I can confirm the page is blank for me too.  That's about all the concrete help I can give you on this one.

I was thinking "permissions."  You don't have your forum listed on your public menu, so I assume guests have no rights to it.  When I tried a similar url on my test site, I got the template header and footer and a "not authorized" message in the middle.  Guests have no rights on my forum and my forum is "wrapped" by my site template.  If your forum is not wrapped and you're not authorized. . .   In engineering terms this would be known as a "WAG" (wild ass guess).  Best I can do, sorry.

Dale

I'm not sure that this is "manual" but you do have to patch.  In the backend, select Components, Joomla-SMF Forum, Install.  The fifth and sixth items on the first tab are the "patches."  You need to patch both Joomla and SMF to use the bridge.  The label will change to "done [un-patch]" when complete.

I'm glad you got it working.