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WordPress permalinks broken on Ubuntu 20.04 LAMP stack

Posted July 18, 2020 505 views
ApacheWordPressUbuntu 20.04

Getting the following 404 error message:

Not Found
The requested URL was not found on this server.
Apache/2.4.41 (Ubuntu) Server at matbury.com Port 443

So far on my VPS:
Let’s encrypt certbot installed & HTTPS set at default (redirect)
Apache mod_rewrite installed & enabled

Allow Apache to write WordPress’ .htaccess file:

$chown www-data:www-data /var/www/html/wordpress/.htaccess
$chmod 755 /var/www/html/wordpress/.htaccess

$sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/000-default.conf
<VirtualHost *:80>
        ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost
        DocumentRoot /var/www/html

        <Directory /var/www/html/>
            Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
            AllowOverride all
            Require all granted
        </Directory>

        ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
        CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined
</VirtualHost>

(I even tried changing the port number to 443)

$sudo nano /etc/apache2/apache2.conf
ServerName localhost
$sudo service apache2 restart

(Even tried rebooting the server)

$sudo nano /var/www/html/wordpress/wp-config.php
Added:
define( 'WP_SITEURL', 'https://matbury.com/wordpress' );

$sudo nano /var/www/html/wordpress/.htaccess
# BEGIN WordPress
# The directives (lines) between `BEGIN WordPress` and `END WordPress` are
# dynamically generated, and should only be modified via WordPress filters.
# Any changes to the directives between these markers will be overwritten.
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /wordpress/
RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /wordpress/index.php [L]
</IfModule>

# END WordPress

I also have Moodle 3.9 running on the same server. No problems with that but it doesn’t use mod_rewrite.

Everything works fine with Plain links set in WordPress. When I switch to permalinks I get the 404 error. What am I missing or doing wrong?

Thanks in advance! :)

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matbury
By:
matbury
edited by MattIPv4
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3 answers
bobbyiliev July 19, 2020

Hi there @matbury,

As your WordPress installation is stored at /var/www/html/wordpress you would need to add another AllowOverride rule for that folder as well:

        <Directory /var/www/html/wordpress>
            Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
            AllowOverride all
            Require all granted
        </Directory>

That way the .htaccess file in your /var/www/html/wordpress folder would take effect.

After that run an Apache config test and if you get Syntax OK restart it.

Let me know how it goes.
Regards,
Bobby

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matbury July 19, 2020

Thanks for responding bobbyiliev :)

Where should I add the additional AllowOverride rule? I’ve tried this:

<VirtualHost *:80>
        ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost
        DocumentRoot /var/www/html

        <Directory /var/www/html/>
            Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
            AllowOverride all
            Require all granted
        </Directory>

        <Directory /var/www/html/wordpress>
            Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
            AllowOverride all
            Require all granted
        </Directory>

        ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
        CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined
</VirtualHost>

in /etc/apache2/sites-available/000-default.conf

I’ve also tried with a trailing slash on <Directory /var/www/html/wordpress/>

Syntax is OK but still getting the 404 error.

Please help.

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  • bobbyiliev July 20, 2020

    Hi there @matbury,

    This actually looks correct I believe. I also tested this at my end, it should actually work without the extra AllowOverride rule that I suggested.

    Can you verify that mod_rewrite is enabled:

    • sudo apachectl -M | grep rewrite_module

    Also are there any errors in your Apache error log?

    • sudo tail -100 /var/log/apache/error.log

    Regards,
    Bobby

    Reply Report
matbury July 22, 2020

Hi,

I checked again & mod_rewrite is enabled.

Apart from bots trying to access non-existent pages & this error:

PHP Fatal error: Uncaught Error: Call to undefined function get_header() in /var/www/html/wordpress/wp-content/themes/twentyseventeen/404.php:13\nStack trace:\n#0 {main}\n thrown in /var/www/html/wordpress/wp-content/themes/twentyseventeen/404.php on line 13

I couldn’t see any other errors in the Apache logs.

I’ve also tried the twentytwenty theme just in case.

Here’s the Wordpress generated .htaccess file:

# BEGIN WordPress
# The directives (lines) between `BEGIN WordPress` and `END WordPress` are
# dynamically generated, and should only be modified via WordPress filters.
# Any changes to the directives between these markers will be overwritten.
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /wordpress/
RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /wordpress/index.php [L]
</IfModule>

# END WordPress

What else can I try?

Thanks in advance! :)

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