Permalinks don’t work – have tried many things

  • In short, I can’t get them to work. I’ve tried many different fixes, but here’s how it goes:

    1) I install WordPress via one-click on Dreamhost. It works fine.

    2) I go to the Permalinks page on WP options, and input a structure like:

    /%year%/%monthnum%/%day%/%postname%/
    /archive/%year%/%monthnum%/%day%/%postname%/

    and many similar combinations.

    3) It tells me that it can’t write to my .htaccess file, so I:

    3a) Make a blank .htaccess file with 666 permissions in both the root of the blog directory (/wordpress) and in the site directory (/). Both directories are also group writeable. This doesn’t work – WordPress still says it can’t write to .htaccess.

    3b) Make my own .htaccess file with the code it supplies. This doesn’t work – when I click on permalinks, I just get a 404 returned.

    4) I give up, and use a structure like:

    /index.php/%year%/%monthnum%/%day%/%postname%/

    5) This also doesn’t work – instead of a 404 when I click on permalinks, I get a “No input file specified” error message.

    I’ve gone on the web and found various bits of info referring to this problem, or problems like it, but I haven’t found a fix that works. I can’t figure out what’s going on here – it seems like mod_rewrite just isn’t working for me, but I can’t tell. I’ve emailed Dreamhost tech support, but have had no answer.

    Am I forever destined to be without permalinks, or is there something really simple that I’m missing here?

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)
  • Thread Starter adrianhon

    (@adrianhon)

    Here is my .htaccess file. This is for /%year%/%monthnum%/%day%/%postname%/ :

    <IfModule mod_rewrite.c><br />
    RewriteEngine On<br />
    RewriteBase /<br />
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -f [OR]<br />
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -d<br />
    RewriteRule ^.*$ - [S=38]<br />
    RewriteRule ^feed/(feed|rdf|rss|rss2|atom)/?$ /index.php?&feed=$1 [QSA,L]<br />
    RewriteRule ^(feed|rdf|rss|rss2|atom)/?$ /index.php?&feed=$1 [QSA,L]<br />
    RewriteRule ^page/?([0-9]{1,})/?$ /index.php?&paged=$1 [QSA,L]<br />
    RewriteRule ^comments/feed/(feed|rdf|rss|rss2|atom)/?$ /index.php?&feed=$1&withcomments=1 [QSA,L]<br />
    RewriteRule ^comments/(feed|rdf|rss|rss2|atom)/?$ /index.php?&feed=$1&withcomments=1 [QSA,L]<br />
    RewriteRule ^comments/page/?([0-9]{1,})/?$ /index.php?&paged=$1 [QSA,L]<br />
    RewriteRule ^author/([^/]+)/feed/(feed|rdf|rss|rss2|atom)/?$ /index.php?author_name=$1&feed=$2 [QSA,L]<br />
    RewriteRule ^author/([^/]+)/(feed|rdf|rss|rss2|atom)/?$ /index.php?author_name=$1&feed=$2 [QSA,L]<br />
    RewriteRule ^author/([^/]+)/page/?([0-9]{1,})/?$ /index.php?author_name=$1&paged=$2 [QSA,L]<br />
    RewriteRule ^author/([^/]+)/?$ /index.php?author_name=$1 [QSA,L]<br />
    RewriteRule ^([0-9]{4})/([0-9]{1,2})/([0-9]{1,2})/feed/(feed|rdf|rss|rss2|atom)/?$ /index.php?year=$1&monthnum=$2&day=$3&feed=$4 [QSA,L]<br />
    RewriteRule ^([0-9]{4})/([0-9]{1,2})/([0-9]{1,2})/(feed|rdf|rss|rss2|atom)/?$ /index.php?year=$1&monthnum=$2&day=$3&feed=$4 [QSA,L]<br />
    RewriteRule ^([0-9]{4})/([0-9]{1,2})/([0-9]{1,2})/page/?([0-9]{1,})/?$ /index.php?year=$1&monthnum=$2&day=$3&paged=$4 [QSA,L]<br />
    RewriteRule ^([0-9]{4})/([0-9]{1,2})/([0-9]{1,2})/?$ /index.php?year=$1&monthnum=$2&day=$3 [QSA,L]<br />
    RewriteRule ^([0-9]{4})/([0-9]{1,2})/feed/(feed|rdf|rss|rss2|atom)/?$ /index.php?year=$1&monthnum=$2&feed=$3 [QSA,L]<br />
    RewriteRule ^([0-9]{4})/([0-9]{1,2})/(feed|rdf|rss|rss2|atom)/?$ /index.php?year=$1&monthnum=$2&feed=$3 [QSA,L]<br />
    RewriteRule ^([0-9]{4})/([0-9]{1,2})/page/?([0-9]{1,})/?$ /index.php?year=$1&monthnum=$2&paged=$3 [QSA,L]<br />
    RewriteRule ^([0-9]{4})/([0-9]{1,2})/?$ /index.php?year=$1&monthnum=$2 [QSA,L]<br />
    RewriteRule ^([0-9]{4})/feed/(feed|rdf|rss|rss2|atom)/?$ /index.php?year=$1&feed=$2 [QSA,L]<br />
    RewriteRule ^([0-9]{4})/(feed|rdf|rss|rss2|atom)/?$ /index.php?year=$1&feed=$2 [QSA,L]<br />
    RewriteRule ^([0-9]{4})/page/?([0-9]{1,})/?$ /index.php?year=$1&paged=$2 [QSA,L]<br />
    RewriteRule ^([0-9]{4})/?$ /index.php?year=$1 [QSA,L]<br />
    RewriteRule ^([0-9]{4})/([0-9]{1,2})/([0-9]{1,2})/([^/]+)/trackback/?$ /index.php?year=$1&monthnum=$2&day=$3&name=$4&tb=1 [QSA,L]<br />
    RewriteRule ^([0-9]{4})/([0-9]{1,2})/([0-9]{1,2})/([^/]+)/feed/(feed|rdf|rss|rss2|atom)/?$ /index.php?year=$1&monthnum=$2&day=$3&name=$4&feed=$5 [QSA,L]<br />
    RewriteRule ^([0-9]{4})/([0-9]{1,2})/([0-9]{1,2})/([^/]+)/(feed|rdf|rss|rss2|atom)/?$ /index.php?year=$1&monthnum=$2&day=$3&name=$4&feed=$5 [QSA,L]<br />
    RewriteRule ^([0-9]{4})/([0-9]{1,2})/([0-9]{1,2})/([^/]+)/page/?([0-9]{1,})/?$ /index.php?year=$1&monthnum=$2&day=$3&name=$4&paged=$5 [QSA,L]<br />
    RewriteRule ^([0-9]{4})/([0-9]{1,2})/([0-9]{1,2})/([^/]+)(/[0-9]+)?/?$ /index.php?year=$1&monthnum=$2&day=$3&name=$4&page=$5 [QSA,L]<br />
    RewriteRule ^([0-9]{4})/([0-9]{1,2})/([^/]+)/feed/(feed|rdf|rss|rss2|atom)/?$ /index.php?year=$1&monthnum=$2&feed=$4&name=$3 [QSA,L]<br />
    RewriteRule ^([0-9]{4})/([0-9]{1,2})/([^/]+)/(feed|rdf|rss|rss2|atom)/?$ /index.php?year=$1&monthnum=$2&feed=$4&name=$3 [QSA,L]<br />
    RewriteRule ^([0-9]{4})/([0-9]{1,2})/([^/]+)/page/?([0-9]{1,})/?$ /index.php?year=$1&monthnum=$2&name=$3&paged=$4 [QSA,L]<br />
    RewriteRule ^([0-9]{4})/([0-9]{1,2})/([^/]+)(/[0-9]+)?/?$ /index.php?year=$1&monthnum=$2&name=$3&page=$4 [QSA,L]<br />
    RewriteRule ^([0-9]{4})/([0-9]{1,2})/([^/]+)/trackback/?$ /index.php?year=$1&monthnum=$2&tb=1&name=$3 [QSA,L]<br />
    RewriteRule ^([0-9]{4})/([^/]+)/feed/(feed|rdf|rss|rss2|atom)/?$ /index.php?year=$1&feed=$3&name=$2 [QSA,L]<br />
    RewriteRule ^([0-9]{4})/([^/]+)/(feed|rdf|rss|rss2|atom)/?$ /index.php?year=$1&feed=$3&name=$2 [QSA,L]<br />
    RewriteRule ^([0-9]{4})/([^/]+)/page/?([0-9]{1,})/?$ /index.php?year=$1&name=$2&paged=$3 [QSA,L]<br />
    RewriteRule ^([0-9]{4})/([^/]+)(/[0-9]+)?/?$ /index.php?year=$1&name=$2&page=$3 [QSA,L]<br />
    RewriteRule ^([0-9]{4})/([^/]+)/trackback/?$ /index.php?year=$1&tb=1&name=$2 [QSA,L]<br />
    RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /wp-htaccess.php [L]<br />
    </IfModule>

    Are you on an Apache server ?

    Thread Starter adrianhon

    (@adrianhon)

    Ah! I managed to figure out the problem, so I’ll recount it here:

    If you have having this problem, your domain has likely been set by Dreamhost to run PHP as CGI. They do this as a security measure, but it’s a real pain in the ass. Go to the control panel in Dreamhost and turn it off. When you turn it off, Dreamhost will change the chmod settings of all your files – they mean well, but they don’t tell you, and that’s another pain.

    Now, open up an FTP client and chmod *all* of the files in the wordpress/ directory to 755, including all subdirectories and files inside.

    Make sure that your .htaccess file is in the same place as your index.php file – this may not be the same directory as wordpress/! Do not make the same mistake I did and put it in your wordpress directory – it’s not supposed to be there. The .htaccess file should be chmoded 666.

    This *will* make permalinks work.

    I just had the biggest drawn out drama with Permalinks on Dreamhost. And I don’t know WHO to blame for this. BTW, I have Dreamhost and I’m running PHP 4 and WP 2.0.3.

    Thing is, I imported a bunch of content. But when it imported it, it imported the Categories with Uppercase including the (hitting forehead) slugs.

    Right….the slugs were ‘Articles’ and ‘Travel’ instead of ‘articles’ and ‘travel’. For some reason, .htaccess DOES NOT like uppercase in any of it’s slugs.

    Thats all. Check out your imported data and make sure it’s cool.

    I don’t know who did it…I’m just glad it’s fixed!

    Oh…and look for spaces, too!

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)
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