[RESOLVED] .htaccess not rewriting properly (or at all)

Bonesnap

Hello all!

I installed WordPress on my webserver at home to prepare a beta of my blog before actually putting it live. I was able to get some work done, but I cannot access any links. Instead I get hit with a 404 error. I am using one of the predefined WordPress URL structures and it creates an .htaccess file automatically.

# BEGIN WordPress
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /mywebsite/
RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /mywebsite/index.php [L]
</IfModule>
# END WordPress

This is a pretty standard WordPress .htaccess file; I've seen it a dozen times before working on WordPress sites for my job, so I have confidence it is working properly. I've only ever seen this issue happen once before and that was when I did a website for a university and it was installed on their custom server; they had the rewrite module of Apache turned off. As soon as it was enabled it worked fine.

Needless to say I have the rewrite module turned on, and confirmed with a readout of phpinfo(). I thought that would fix the issue but it still occurs. Do I have to enable something else in Apache for the .htaccess to work? For reference I am using Apache 2.2.11 on Windows XP SP3.

Thanks for any insight!

bradgrafelman

Have you actually verified mod_rewrite is enabled and working? Try getting rid of the <IfModule>..</IfModule> tags and see if Apache throws any errors about unrecognized syntax.

Also, are you sure .htaccess files are working at all? Try adding something obvious, e.g.:

Order Allow,Deny
Deny from all

and see if it works.

Bonesnap

I have tried removing the <IfModule> to no effect, and I checked Apache's logs and the only error I'm getting is a file not found error, though there is another error saying the favicon.ico file does not exist. Not sure why that's there.

Though it appears the .htaccess isn't working at all. I added in the code you provided and there was no difference in behaviour. I even shortened it and just kept the deny all and commented out everything else. Still, no change.

Is there a configuration setting or something in Apache to enable .htaccess files?

bradgrafelman

Bonesnap;10993566 wrote:
there is another error saying the favicon.ico file does not exist. Not sure why that's there.

Blame your (and everyone else's) web browser; it's simply trying to request a small icon file from your server for the purpose of displaying it in the address bar, favorites list, etc. Google "apache error favicon.ico" and you'l probably get at least thousands of relevant results.

Bonesnap;10993566 wrote:
Is there a configuration setting or something in Apache to enable .htaccess files?

AllowOverride comes to mind, though there might be others.

Bonesnap

bradgrafelman;10993567 wrote:
AllowOverride comes to mind, though there might be others.

Awesome, this did the trick. Thanks for your help.