PROBLEM: I am unable to get Permalinks with Postname working

Hi,

PROBLEM: I am unable to get Permalinks with Postname working

I am new to WordPress but not to Linux and support.

System Description
<strong>Ubuntu 18.04</strong> - Linux golf 4.15.0-20-generic #21-Ubuntu SMP Tue Apr 24 06:16:15 UTC 2018 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

WordPress
WordPress 5.2.2 running Twenty Seventeen theme. ( I was running Twenty Ninteen but changed as advised in the sticky note on the forum)

Web Server
Apache Server version: Apache/2.4.29 (Ubuntu)

MariaDB
Server version: 10.1.41-MariaDB-0ubuntu0.18.04.1 Ubuntu 18.04

PHP Version

HP 7.1.31-1+ubuntu18.04.1+deb.sury.org+1 (cli) (built: Aug  7 2019 10:23:12) ( NTS )
Copyright (c) 1997-2018 The PHP Group
Zend Engine v3.1.0, Copyright (c) 1998-2018 Zend Technologies
    with Zend OPcache v7.1.31-1+ubuntu18.04.1+deb.sury.org+1, Copyright (c) 1999-2018, by Zend Technologies

Problem:
I wish to use the much more user friendly pretty links but these give me the Apache 404 error.
If i change to the Custom structure – /index.php/%year%/%monthnum%/%day%/%postname%/ – This works fine
If I use the Plain structure that also works fine – /?p=xxx

I have read the permalinks problems logged on this site but none of the options work for me.

I have reinstalled WordPress multiple times. Each time i throw away the DB and start from scratch.

I then login to WordPress and delete all plugins so I have none to get in the way of testing.

My document root for WordPress is /var/www/html/
This is where my .htaccess file is.

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

# END WordPress

This file is updated as I can put entrys in it. Update permalinks and it gets updated
-rwxr-xr-x 1 www-data www-data 236 Aug 27 02:40 /var/www/html/.htaccess

Server is in Aus hence the time difference.

My wp-config.php DB settings looks like so

// ** MySQL settings - You can get this info from your web host ** //
/** The name of the database for WordPress */
define( 'DB_NAME', 'DB_NAME' );

/** MySQL database username */
define( 'DB_USER', 'DB_USER' );

/** MySQL database password */
define( 'DB_PASSWORD', 'PASSWORD' );

/** MySQL hostname */
define( 'DB_HOST', 'localhost' );

/** Database Charset to use in creating database tables. */
define( 'DB_CHARSET', 'utf8' );

/** The Database Collate type. Don't change this if in doubt. */
define( 'DB_COLLATE', '' );

Apache is a standard install and the

<VirtualHost *:80>
     ServerAdmin [email protected]
     DocumentRoot /var/www/html/
     ServerName xxx.yyyy.zzz
     ServerAlias someserver

     <Directory /var/www/html/>
        Options +FollowSymlinks
        <strong>AllowOverride All</strong>
        Require all granted
     </Directory>

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

</VirtualHost>

SO this has the AllowOverride option set so the Webserver “Should” be reading the .htaccess file

Any ideas what I am doing wrong as I’ve looked at this multiple times over the past 24 hours probably expending 6-8 hours testing forum posts

Ta in advance

Tom