Error: The Apache mod_rewrite module is not enabled…

edit: Fix didn’t work.

• This reply was modified 3 years ago by Llewen.

You can check the loaded modules by creating a temporary test PHP file with phpinfo() in the root folder and opening it in a browser. See more: https://www.php.net/manual/en/function.phpinfo.php

Do not forget to remove the file after tests.

I’ve double, triple, quadruple, quintuple, sextuple, checked, rechecked, gone back months later and done it all again. mod_rewrite is absolutely enabled. It’s in my /etc/apache2/mods-available, the symlink is in /etc/apache2/mods-enabled. .htaccess contains the following code:

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule .* - [E=HTTP_AUTHORIZATION:%{HTTP:Authorization}]
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
</IfModule>

/usr/lib/apache2/modules contains mod_rewrite.so, so that’s there as well. phpinfo ( ) also lists it, as follows.

Loaded Modules core mod_so mod_watchdog http_core mod_log_config mod_logio mod_version mod_unixd mod_access_compat mod_alias mod_auth_basic mod_authn_core mod_authn_file mod_authz_core mod_authz_host mod_authz_user mod_autoindex mod_cgi mod_deflate mod_dir mod_env mod_filter mod_headers mod_mime prefork mod_negotiation mod_php7 mod_reqtimeout mod_rewrite etc.

I’ve also tried AllowOverride All, just to be sure that wasn’t the issue. It made no difference.

What version of PHP do you run? Does apache_mod_loaded() always return the same result for any other Apache module installed on the server, including a random string?

Here’s a link to the phpinfo ( ) as a pdf. I tried to remove all the possible dox data, but I can’t be sure I got it all. I’ll delete the file and remove the link when I know you have it.

phpinfo

The “Microsoft IIS 5.0” is my little joke on hackers attempting to hack the website…

On the off chance that you think Mod Security is the issue, I have attempted to disable it, to no effect.

Just to be double sure, I disabled modsecurity entirely, and encountered the same error.

I’m not really good with WordPress or with PHP, so this was a bit of fun, but as far as I can see, unless I am running into permissions issues, apache_mod_loaded always returns FALSE.

I ran this code on various bits of the admin page, using different mod names and just a random string, and it always returned FALSE. But perhaps I was just plugging it into the wrong place. I’m a hack when it comes to scripting. I’m not really skilled.

<div>
<?php
if ( apache_mod_loaded( 'mod_rewrite' ) ) {
    echo "TRUE";
} else {
    echo "FALSE";
}
?>
</div>

I double checked the documentation. That function doesn’t appear have any specific scope, so it should run on any page, and it returned false no matter what page I ran it on, no matter what data I fed it.

I think I figured it out. My little joke backfired on me. Changing the server string messed up the contents of the “$is_apache” variable. That might well be why a bunch of other things that I’ve never been able to figure out are broken in my WordPress. I’ll post back when I know for sure.

Ya, that was it. Thanks for your help. I’m not sure why disabling modsecurity didn’t also disable that, but it didn’t. That was also the reason for a lot of the other issues I’ve been having with WordPress. Lesson learned.

Good news!