Unable to preview/link to existing post

Try re-saving your permalink structure at Settings > Permalinks in your Dashboard. If WordPress cannot automatically edit the .htaccess file, it will provide manual instructions after saving.

Thanks for the suggestion, but the change (and I did change to a custom value for testing purposes) had no effect on the “File not found” error.

Does the Apache configuration have mod_rewrite installed and running?

Yes. A grep of conf.modules.d/00-base-conf yields

conf.modules.d/00-base.conf:LoadModule rewrite_module modules/mod_rewrite.so

The .htaccess file contains

# BEGIN WordPress
# The directives (lines) between "BEGIN WordPress" and "END WordPress" are
# dynamically generated, and should only be modified via WordPress filters.
# Any changes to the directives between these markers will be overwritten.
<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>

• This reply was modified 3 years, 2 months ago by Yui. Reason: formatting

Hm, yes that _should_ work.

Just wondering, does the option detailed here work? https://www.ads-software.com/support/article/using-permalinks/#pathinfo-almost-pretty

I assume that you mean inserting “/index.php” ahead of the date formatting entries in the custom format string.

No, that made no difference.

Ok, so mod_rewrite is what makes the “pretty” permalinks (those without index.php) work.

And, the “ugly” permalinks (those with index.php) are for server configurations without mod_rewrite.

In other words, one of those is supposed to work, which makes me wonder if something critical is missing in the server config. I’m just not sure what though.

Visit Tools > Site Health in your site’s Dashboard. What critical issues and recommended improvements are reported under Status?

If you see just a check mark and “Great job!” there, please go to the Info tab next, click “Copy site info to clipboard,” and paste that here in a reply. (that tool was built specifically for this purpose, and as such does not reveal any sensitive info)

• This reply was modified 3 years, 3 months ago by James Huff. Reason: typo

The server was DoS’d and unable to send/receive mail for a few days. Site Health complains about a 404 with regard to the REST API, and doesn’t seem to find ImageMagick although it is installed. I accept the inherent security risk of inactive themes and plugins, since this is still an experiment. See the site report below.

One of the issues I have in attempting repairs is that very nearly every online resource assumes that WP is controlled via cPanel; it is not, so I cannot simply click on a button and magically fix a problem. I’ve even considered wiping the entire thing from the system (cf. “experiment”), but even the online help for that drastic measure assumes cPanel!

Thanks for your patience.

The following is the site report:

### wp-core ###

version: 5.8.2
site_language: en_US
user_language: en_US
timezone: America/Los_Angeles
permalink: /index.php/%year%-%monthnum%-%day%/%postname%/
https_status: true
multisite: false
user_registration: 1
blog_public: 0
default_comment_status: undefined
environment_type: production
user_count: 1
dotorg_communication: true

### wp-paths-sizes ###

wordpress_path: /var/www/html/wordpress
wordpress_size: loading...
uploads_path: /var/www/html/wordpress/wp-content/uploads
uploads_size: loading...
themes_path: /var/www/html/wordpress/wp-content/themes
themes_size: loading...
plugins_path: /var/www/html/wordpress/wp-content/plugins
plugins_size: loading...
database_size: loading...
total_size: loading...

### wp-active-theme ###

name: Twenty Twenty-One (twentytwentyone)
version: 1.4
author: the WordPress team
author_website: https://www.ads-software.com/
parent_theme: none
theme_features: core-block-patterns, widgets-block-editor, automatic-feed-links, title-tag, post-formats, post-thumbnails, menus, html5, custom-logo, customize-selective-refresh-widgets, wp-block-styles, align-wide, editor-styles, editor-style, editor-font-sizes, custom-background, editor-color-palette, editor-gradient-presets, responsive-embeds, custom-line-height, experimental-link-color, custom-spacing, custom-units, widgets
theme_path: /var/www/html/wordpress/wp-content/themes/twentytwentyone
auto_update: Disabled

### wp-themes-inactive (6) ###

Blank Canvas: version: 1.2.9, author: Automattic, Auto-updates disabled
Blog Light: version: 0.0.9, author: themesmake, Auto-updates disabled
RetroGeek: version: 0.5, author: tuxlog, Auto-updates disabled
Seedlet: version: 1.1.13, author: Automattic, Auto-updates disabled
Twenty Nineteen: version: 2.1, author: the WordPress team, Auto-updates disabled
Twenty Twenty: version: 1.8, author: the WordPress team, Auto-updates disabled

### wp-plugins-active (3) ###

Akismet Anti-Spam: version: 4.2.1, author: Automattic, Auto-updates enabled
Classic Editor: version: 1.6.2, author: WordPress Contributors, Auto-updates enabled
Limit Login Attempts Reloaded: version: 2.23.2, author: Limit Login Attempts Reloaded, Auto-updates enabled

### wp-plugins-inactive (1) ###

WordPress Backup & Migration: version: 1.3.3, author: WebToffee, Auto-updates enabled

### wp-media ###

image_editor: WP_Image_Editor_GD
imagick_module_version: Not available
imagemagick_version: Not available
imagick_version: Not available
file_uploads: File uploads is turned off
post_max_size: 48M
upload_max_filesize: 32M
max_effective_size: 32 MB
max_file_uploads: 20
gd_version: 2.2.5
gd_formats: GIF, JPEG, PNG, WebP, BMP, XPM
ghostscript_version: not available

### wp-server ###

server_architecture: Linux 4.18.0-305.12.1.el8_4.x86_64 x86_64
httpd_software: Apache/2.4.37 (centos) OpenSSL/1.1.1k
php_version: 7.4.26 64bit
php_sapi: fpm-fcgi
max_input_variables: 1000
time_limit: 600
memory_limit: 256M
max_input_time: 1000
upload_max_filesize: 32M
php_post_max_size: 48M
curl_version: 7.61.1 OpenSSL/1.1.1k
suhosin: false
imagick_availability: false
pretty_permalinks: true

### wp-database ###

extension: mysqli
server_version: 10.3.28-MariaDB
client_version: mysqlnd 7.4.26

### wp-constants ###

WP_HOME: undefined
WP_SITEURL: undefined
WP_CONTENT_DIR: /var/www/html/wordpress/wp-content
WP_PLUGIN_DIR: /var/www/html/wordpress/wp-content/plugins
WP_MEMORY_LIMIT: 40M
WP_MAX_MEMORY_LIMIT: 256M
WP_DEBUG: false
WP_DEBUG_DISPLAY: true
WP_DEBUG_LOG: false
SCRIPT_DEBUG: false
WP_CACHE: false
CONCATENATE_SCRIPTS: undefined
COMPRESS_SCRIPTS: undefined
COMPRESS_CSS: undefined
WP_LOCAL_DEV: undefined
DB_CHARSET: utf8mb4
DB_COLLATE: undefined

### wp-filesystem ###

wordpress: writable
wp-content: writable
uploads: writable
plugins: writable
themes: writable

• This reply was modified 3 years, 2 months ago by Yui. Reason: formatting

Apparently I have gmagick installed rather than ImageMagick; this may have been due to an issue in Centos 8 when I was setting things up. It’s not clear to me whether WP does not work with gmagick.

Does your httpd.conf (or its parts) permit

AllowOverride All

to enable .htaccess mod_rewrite directives?
https://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/mod/core.html#allowoverride

Yes. A grep of conf.modules.d/00-base-conf yields

conf.modules.d/00-base.conf:LoadModule rewrite_module modules/mod_rewrite.so

Is it enabled? try a2enmod (or alternative on CentOS), it will create link to conf.avail (or whatever its called in CentOS), you have to reload Apache after enabling it.

Little fast-googled-howto:

Apache rewrite module allows URL rewriting. It’s enabled by Default in Centos 7. Check if it’s already enabled in your version. The following command outputs a list of Apache modules that are currently enabled:

httpd -M

If it is not already enabled, you will need to enable it by modifying the configuration file

sudo nano /etc/httpd/conf.modules.d/00-base.conf

and include the following line

LoadModule rewrite_module modules/mod_rewrite.so

Save the file and restart the Apache server

sudo systemctl restart httpd

—–

It’s not clear to me whether WP does not work with gmagick.

They are somewhat compatible, the question is if PHP Imagick extension can be linked with GMagick libraries, there is GMagick PHP extension as well, but it will not work with WordPress Image Editor class.

Refer to phpinfo() output if you have ImageMagick there

• This reply was modified 3 years, 2 months ago by Yui.
• This reply was modified 3 years, 2 months ago by Yui.

If you’re not getting responses, correct or not, from .htaccess, it may be because it’s disabled. In your <VirtualHost...> stanza for this site in the httpd config, add

<Directory /path/to/wordpress>
   AllowOverride All
</Directory>

then restart httpd.

I’ve just added

<Directory /var/www/html/wordpress>
AllowOverride all
</Directory>

to httpd.conf and restarted httpd, without changing the result.

At this point, I would prefer to stop trying to fix this broken installation and start over. As I noted previously, all of the how-tos I’ve found online assume that there is a cPanel button for doing this, and do not provide actual details on what needs to be deleted/modified to allow this. Pointers would be appreciated.

Thanks.