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 [email protected]
    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 :-)

randalv randalv · Accepted Answer · 2015-05-05T21:13:59

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.

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

2 Answers