sra-toolkit can work with three types of accessions, depending on the source of data. For SRA the accessions start with SRR, for EBi - ERR, for DDBJ - DRR. Distiller now allows all these types of accessions.
sra-toolkit requires configuration folder ".ncbi" present in the home directory. However, when running distiller locally, it cannot find its location. I added a fix line which might be uncommented by pro users.