Enabling mod_rewrite on Amazon Linux

I'm trying to enable mod_rewrite on an Amazon Linux instance. My Directory directives look like this:

<Directory />
    Order deny,allow
    Allow from all
    Options None
    AllowOverride None
</Directory>

<Directory "/var/www/vhosts">
    Order allow,deny
    Allow from all
    Options None
    AllowOverride All
</Directory>

And then further down in httpd.conf I have the LoadModule directive:

... other modules...
#LoadModule substitute_module modules/mod_substitute.so
LoadModule rewrite_module modules/mod_rewrite.so
#LoadModule proxy_module modules/mod_proxy.so
... other modules...

I have commented out all the Apache modules not needed by Wordpress.

Still when I issue http restart and then check the loaded modules with /usr/sbin/httpd -l I get only:

[root@foobar]# /usr/sbin/httpd -l
Compiled in modules:
  core.c
  prefork.c
  http_core.c
  mod_so.c

Inside the virtual host containing the Wordpress site I have an .htaccess containing:

# 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

The .htaccess is owned by apache which is the user apache runs under. The apachectl -t command returns Syntax OK

My /etc/httpd/conf.d/vhosts.conf looks like this:

<VirtualHost *:80>
     ServerAdmin [email protected]
     ServerName foobar.net
     ServerAlias www.foobar.net
     DocumentRoot /var/www/vhosts/foobar/
     ErrorLog /var/www/vhosts/foobar/logs/error.log
     CustomLog /var/www/vhosts/foobar/logs/access.log combined
</VirtualHost>

What am I doing wrong? What should I check?

Solution 1:

The LoadModule directive will load a module dynamically.

Try issuing RewriteEngine on in a virtual host followed by apachectl -t to confirm weather or not the module is actually loaded.

Solution 2:

I just started a fresh amazon linux and had the same issue and the Options FollowSymLink were there but the next line AllowOverride None had to be changed to AllowOverride All