Wordpress pretty permalinks fail over SSL - 404 File does not exist

Question

I am unable to get wordpress pretty permalinks to work on an Ubuntu server with Apache, Django and SSL . The configuration works fine if I disable SSL, but fails with it enabled. With SSL enabled, every wordpress permalink (that doesn't map to a physical file) results in a 404 and an entry in apache's error log like

File does not exist: /var/www/wpwrap/wordpress/hello-world

I have tried dozens of stackoverflow & web suggested solutions (vast majority for non-SSL setups) - nothing has worked. I am seasoned with defining Apache configs (but not wordpress) and am admin of this machine.

1. My apache setup

• apache2.conf
  • basically out of the box, contains no <Directory> or <VirtualHost> entries
  • loads conf.d/* then sites-enabled/*
• httpd.conf (empty)

• sites-enabled/default-000

  • Out-of-the-box contents prior to this. (My separate 443 vhost listed below redirects all http traffic to https, so this file should be moot). For troubleshooting this issue, I changed EVERY <Directory> entry in this file to explicitly contain these 2 lines. No effect.

     Options FollowSymLinks AllowOverride All 

• conf.d/my-ssl-site.conf - My CORE configuration

   <Location /> # preexisting, works fine <IfModule mod_rewrite.c> RewriteEngine on # force www prefix for plain example.com; RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^example\\.com RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://www.example.com%{REQUEST_URI} [R=permanent,L] # force ssl RewriteCond %{HTTPS} off RewriteRule (.*) https://%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI} [R=permanent] </IfModule> </Location> <VirtualHost *:443> ServerName example.com ServerAlias www.example.com ServerAdmin admin@example.com DirectoryIndex index.html ErrorLog "|/usr/sbin/rotatelogs -f -l /var/log/django/error.log.%Y.%m.%d 25M" CustomLog "|/usr/sbin/rotatelogs -f -l /var/log/django/access.log.%Y.%m.%d 25M" combined #FOR REWRITE DEBUGGING #RewriteLogLevel 10 #RewriteLog /var/log/django/rewrites.log # ======= RUN DJANGO/PYTHON THROUGH WSGI MODULE OF APACHE ============== # pre-existing, works fine WSGIScriptAlias / /path_to_my/wsgi.py WSGIDaemonProcess example.com processes=2 threads=15 display-name=%{GROUP} WSGIProcessGroup example.com SSLEngine on # additional SSL config stuff snipped from here # ==== WORDPRESS Settings Alias /blog /var/www/wpwrap/wordpress <IfModule mod_fastcgi.c> AddHandler php5-fcgi .php Action php5-fcgi /php5-fcgi Alias /php5-fcgi /usr/lib/cgi-bin/php5-fcgi FastCgiExternalServer /usr/lib/cgi-bin/php5-fcgi -socket /var/run/php5-fpm.sock -pass-header Authorization </IfModule> <Directory /var/www/wpwrap/wordpress> Options FollowSymLinks AllowOverride All Order allow,deny Allow from all DirectoryIndex index.php #pretty permalink setup, as defined by wordpress Admin UI <IfModule mod_rewrite.c> RewriteEngine On RewriteBase /blog/ RewriteRule ^index\\.php$ - [L] RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d RewriteRule . /blog/index.php [L] </IfModule> </Directory> #Added these directories during wordpress troubleshooting - no effect <Directory /> Options FollowSymLinks AllowOverride All </Directory> <Directory /var/www/> Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews AllowOverride All Order allow,deny allow from all </Directory> <Directory /usr/lib/cgi-bin/php5-fcgi> Options FollowSymLinks AllowOverride All </Directory> </VirtualHost> 

• There are no other <Directory> configs or <VirtualHost> configs or AllowOverride lines in sites enabled, conf.d, or even in mods-enabled, anywhere within /etc/apache2.

2. Server setup

• Pre-existing, working config (running for a year)
  • Ubuntu 12.04
  • Apache 2.2.6 (mpm_worker NOT prefork)
  • Django (mod_wsgi)
    • Django serves base urls at /
  • mod_rewrite
  • virtualhost on 443 (mod_rewrite pushes all 80 traffic to 443), SSL certificate
• New for wordpress
  • wordpress 4.2.1 (to run side by side with pre-existing Django)
    • wordpress serves urls under /blog
    • wordpress files live at /var/www/wpwrap/wordpress
  • mod_fastcgi and php-fpm
    • Server performs well with worker mpm, so I installed well-documented solution (php-fpm & mod_fastcgi) to make PHP work with Apache worker mpm rather than downgrade Apache to prefork mpm just for wordpress.

3. What works:

• Pretty permalinks WITHOUT SSL (If I simply change vhost from 443->80)
• Wordpress Admin UI over SSL
• Any wordpress url that maps to a physically existent file
• Django, SSL, existing rewrites

4. Other things Tried besides items noted above:

No effect on the 404 and error with any of the following:

• Altering order of Virtual Host configuration (mod_wsgi above/below wordpress)
• Moving entire vhost settings into sites-enabled/default-ssl and reloading
• Playing with group (www-data) & permissions (775) of wordpress files
• Altering load order of conf.d/* and sites-enabled/*
• Beating my head against the wall :-)

Answer 1

Solved it.

The problem was a conflict with the <Location> block, which contained another set of Rewrite Rules. Though the rules should not have collided (regex wise), somehow the Location rules were blocking execution of the Directory rules so they never ran at all.

Based on Apache docs which state that Rewrites are not officially supported in <Location> blocks, I migrated all <Location> rewrites into <VirtualHost> entries for ports 80 & 443 in my conf.d/my-ssl-site.conf file. Now everything works.

Answer 2

I had all the same symptoms and found it was the SSL block in virtual hosts /etc/apache2/sites-available/mysite.com.conf <VirtualHost _default_:443> was missing a directory block...

    <Directory /var/www/html/mysite.com/public_html/>
        Options -Indexes +FollowSymlinks
        AllowOverride All
        Require all granted
    </Directory>

As soon as I had that all permalinks off the home page started working :)