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All the tutorials tell me to edit the: /etc/apache2/sites-available/default but this file doesn't exist for me. Within this file I would have to edit the:

<Directory /var/www/>
Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
AllowOverride None
#AllowOverride All
#AllowOverride AuthConfig FileInfo Indexes Limit Options=All, MultiViews        
Order allow,deny
allow from all </Directory>

What should the file look like and should I create it myself?

Aslo I do have a 000-default.conf file but the above 'code' isn't in there either.

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3 Answers 3

Reset to default
74

For apache version 2.4 and later, you have to go to

/etc/apache2/apache2.conf

You have to edit that file (you should have root permission). Change directory text like this;

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

Now restart apache.

service apache2 restart

Hope it works.

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4
  • Can you please explain what this does? How does this tie in with the .htaccess? My .htaccess in not getting read at all.
    – chx101
    Apr 16, 2017 at 10:04
  • 4
    The important line here is AllowOverride All, this means all settings can be set (overridden) in .htaccess files. See docs: httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/mod/core.html#allowoverride
    – jacwah
    Nov 27, 2018 at 15:59
  • 1
    If it is still not working try sudo a2enmod rewrite and then sudo service apache2 restart, this worked for me.
    – Umer Abbas
    Aug 11, 2020 at 6:02
  • This is bad advice for an accepted and highly voted answer. You are changing the main config file, so each time you upgrade your system you have to manually fix the diff. It's better to override the config elsewhere. Also, as of Apache 2.4, the DocumentRoot is /var/www/html not /var/www.
    – Dan
    Feb 5, 2021 at 15:07
28

As of Ubuntu 14.04 (and Apache 2.4), the default DocumentRoot was changed from /var/www to /var/www/html.

Firstly enable a2enmod and restart Apache.

sudo a2enmod rewrite

Then edit the 000-default.conf file

sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/000-default.conf

and add these lines at the end

<Directory /var/www/html>
    AllowOverride All
</Directory>

Finally, restart Apache for the configuration to take effect.

sudo service apache2 restart
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4
  • 2
    This solution works for me because, I need to enable mod_rewrite first. Thanks a lot.
    – kishor10d
    Sep 29, 2017 at 18:16
  • 1
    This really worked for apache 2.4. Saved my day. Even after editing maing apache2.conf .htaccess didn't work but doing this way it worked.
    – Faisal Sarfraz
    Sep 7, 2018 at 7:51
  • 1
    This worked for me, instead, using Ubuntu 20.04
    – Precious Tom
    Apr 27, 2020 at 9:28
  • For Ubuntu; this is the solution that works!
    – Nikster2014
    Jul 20, 2021 at 22:24
9

If you don't want to repeat the same configurtion at each upgrade / update

The best way is :

Edit or create a config file

/etc/apache2/conf-available/httpd.conf

Add

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

Enable the config file

sudo a2enconf httpd

Restart or reload Apache

sudo service apache2 restart

or

sudo service apache2 reload

It's done!

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