the reright of the .htacess file works however all links give a 404 error
Check that mod_rewrite is running on the server.
It is, when I do
a2enmod rewrite
I get this
Module rewrite already enabled
Also my .htacess looks like this
# 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
What is in your .htaccess file? I assume the default permaliks work OK, yes?
yes defult permalinks work fine, also edited above answer with actual info
Not sure how much further I can help here. It does sound like your server is not parsing the .htaccess file correctly.
Indeed. Is there any other packages or modules that this function depends on?
Not that I am aware of but, in the interests of transparency, I am not the greatest of server-wrangling gurus. From running my own local servers, I’d say that a pretty much bog standard Apache install with mod_rewrite should be all that you need.
Do you reckon there could be a problem with my server install then as I wan’t able to reinstate my old website due to unclear reasons despite doing the same method as I have used before and been advised to use. http://wordpress.org/support/topic/database-recovery-error?replies=1
Not sure if it is worth mentioning but the 404 error is not a wordpress 404 error instead it is the default Apache 404 error. Does this change stuff? Is it not fully / properly installed?
Thanks for all your help. Somehow my apache didn’t have allow override to all hence it wasn’t reading the htacess files. Thanks again for your efforts I do appreciate it and I know others you help also do.