WordPress Multisite Subdirectory Errors: 500, Too Many Redirects, 404, etc.

Hello everybody. I’m having a heck of a time installing multisite WordPress. I have been working on it for about 2 weeks and have hit a number of errors. I’ve perused forums, blogs and help articles, trying any suggestion available. Progress has been made, but it’s not working in its entirety, yet.

URL Info
https://www.draggoo.com
https://www.draggoo.com/~kevin
https://www.draggoo.com/wordpress
https://www.draggoo.com/wordpress/kevin
Each family member will have their own blog, which is why we have multisite set up. In theory, we could have the following:
https://www.draggoo.com/wordpress/sarah
etc.

Environment
Gentoo nginx MariaDB WordPress
nginx configuration file is in:
/etc/nginx/nginx.cong
root example.com folder is in:
/var/www/localhost/htdocs
WordPress is installed in:
/var/www/localhost/htdocs/wordpress

Current Problem
https://www.draggoo.com/wordpress/kevin doesn’t have any formatting
https://www.draggoo.com/wordpress/kevin/wp-admin/ shows to many redirects

Other Current Behaviors
https://www.draggoo.com works
https://www.draggoo.com/~kevin works
https://www.draggoo.com/wordpress works
https://www.draggoo.com/wordpress/wp-admin works

Notes
I don’t care about Draggoo.com. It currently has a link to the wordpress site, and that’s it.
I also don’t care about Draggoo.com/~kevin . I built it over 10 years ago using iWeb. It’s there for archiving purposes.

Files
(Sensitive information has been stripped)
(I hope the formatting turns out okay.)

nginx.conf

user nginx nginx;
worker_processes 1;

error_log /var/log/nginx/error_log info;

events {
        worker_connections 1024;
        use epoll;
}

http {
        include /etc/nginx/mime.types;
        default_type application/octet-stream;

        log_format main
                '$remote_addr - $remote_user [$time_local] '
                '"$request" $status $bytes_sent '
                '"$http_referer" "$http_user_agent" '
                '"$gzip_ratio"';

        client_header_timeout 10m;
        client_body_timeout 10m;
        send_timeout 10m;

        connection_pool_size 256;
        client_header_buffer_size 1k;
        large_client_header_buffers 4 2k;
        request_pool_size 4k;

        gzip off;

        output_buffers 1 32k;
        postpone_output 1460;

        sendfile on;
        tcp_nopush on;
        tcp_nodelay on;

        keepalive_timeout 75 20;

        ignore_invalid_headers on;

        map $uri $blogname{
                ~^(?P<blogpath>/[^/]+/)files/(.*)       $blogpath ;
        }

        map $blogname $blogid{
                default -999;
                kevin 2;

                #Ref: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/nginx-helper/
                #include /var/www/wordpress/wp-content/plugins/nginx-helper/map.conf ;
        }

        # Redirects all http requests to https
        server {
                listen 80;
                listen [::]:80;
                server_name draggoo.com www.draggoo.com;
                return 301 https://www.draggoo.com$request_uri;
        }

        # WED-
        # Adding this to redirect all non-www.-having URLs to www.
        server {
                listen               443 ssl;
                server_name          draggoo.com;
                ssl_certificate      xxx.crt;
                ssl_certificate_key  xxx.key;

                return 301 https://www.draggoo.com$request_uri;
        }

        # Server settings for all https requests
        server {

                # http ports and URLs these server details will apply to
                # listen 127.0.0.1;
                # listen 443 ssl http2;
                listen 443;

                # List of server names 
                server_name www.draggoo.com;

                # SSL config - See https://www.bjornjohansen.com/securing-nginx-ssl for reference
                ssl_certificate xxx.crt;
                ssl_certificate_key xxx.key;
                ssl_session_cache shared:SSL:20m;
                ssl_session_timeout 180m;
                ssl_protocols TLSv1.2 TLSv1.3; #TLS v1.0 and v1.1 were deprecated in 2020
                ssl_prefer_server_ciphers on;
                ssl_ciphers xxx;
                ssl_dhparam xxx.pem;
                add_header Strict-Transport-Security "max-age=31536000; includeSubDomains" always;

                # Location of log files
                access_log /var/log/nginx/localhost.access_log main;
                error_log /var/log/nginx/localhost.error_log debug;
                rewrite_log on;

                # Location of files for draggoo.com site 
                root /var/www/localhost/htdocs;

                include global/restrictions.conf;

                location ~ ^/~(.+?)(/.*)?$ {

                        # Location of files for any URI that starts with a tilde (~) (ex: draggoo.com/~kevin will use files from /home/kevin/public_html/
                        alias /home/$1/public_html$2;

                }

                location ~ ^(/[^/]+)?/files/(.+) {
                        try_files /wordpress/wp-content/blogs.dir/$blogid/files/$2 /wordpress/wp-includes/ms-files.php?file=$2 ;
                        access_log off;     log_not_found off; expires max;
                }

                #avoid php readfile()
                location ^~ /wordpress/blogs.dir {
                        internal;
                        alias /var/www/localhost/htdocs/wordpress/wp-content/blogs.dir ;
                        access_log off;     log_not_found off; expires max;
                }

                if (!-e $request_filename) {
                        rewrite /wp-admin$ $scheme://$host/wordpress$uri/ permanent;
                        rewrite ^(/[^/]+)?(/wp-.*) /wordpress$2 last;
                        rewrite ^(/[^/]+)?(/.*\.php) /wordpress$2 last;
                }

#               location @wp {
#                       rewrite ^/wordpress(.*) /wordpress/index.php?$1;
#               }

                location ^~ /wordpress {
                        index index.php index.html index.htm;
                        try_files $uri $uri/ /wordpress/index.php?$args;

                        location ~ \.php$ {
                                fastcgi_split_path_info ^(.+\.php)(/.+)$;
                                include /etc/nginx/fastcgi.conf;
#                               include fastcgi_params;
                                try_files $uri =404;
                                fastcgi_pass unix:/run/php-fpm.socket;
                        }
                }

                location / {
                        try_files $uri $uri/ /wordpress/index.php?$args ;
                }

                location ~ \.php$ {
                        include /etc/nginx/fastcgi.conf;
                        try_files $uri =404;
                        fastcgi_pass unix:/run/php-fpm.socket;
                }
        }
}

restrictions.conf

# Global restrictions configuration file.
# Designed to be included in any server {} block.
location = /favicon.ico {
    log_not_found off;
    access_log off;
}
 
location = /robots.txt {
    allow all;
    log_not_found off;
    access_log off;
}
 
# Deny all attempts to access hidden files such as .htaccess, .htpasswd, .DS_Store (Mac).
# Keep logging the requests to parse later (or to pass to firewall utilities such as fail2ban)
location ~ /\/\. {
    deny all;
}
 
# Deny access to any files with a .php extension in the uploads directory
# Works in sub-directory installs and also in multisite network
# Keep logging the requests to parse later (or to pass to firewall utilities such as fail2ban)
location ~* /(?:uploads|files)/.*\.php$ {
    deny all;
}

wp-config.php

<?php
/**
 * The base configuration for WordPress
 *
 * The wp-config.php creation script uses this file during the
 * installation. You don't have to use the web site, you can
 * copy this file to "wp-config.php" and fill in the values.
 *
 * This file contains the following configurations:
 *
 * * MySQL settings
 * * Secret keys
 * * Database table prefix
 * * ABSPATH
 *
 * @link https://wordpress.org/support/article/editing-wp-config-php/
 *
 * @package WordPress
 */

// ** MySQL settings - You can get this info from your web host ** //
/** The name of the database for WordPress */
define( 'DB_NAME', 'wordpress' );

/** MySQL database username */
define( 'DB_USER', 'xxx' );

/** MySQL database password */
define( 'DB_PASSWORD', 'xxx' );

/** MySQL hostname */
define( 'DB_HOST', 'localhost' );

/** Database Charset to use in creating database tables. */
define( 'DB_CHARSET', 'utf8' );

/** The Database Collate type. Don't change this if in doubt. */
define( 'DB_COLLATE', '' );

/**#@+
 * Authentication Unique Keys and Salts.
 *
 * Change these to different unique phrases!
 * You can generate these using the {@link https://api.wordpress.org/secret-key/1.1/salt/ WordPress.org secret-key service}
 * You can change these at any point in time to invalidate all existing cookies. This will force all users to have to log in again.
 *
 * @since 2.6.0
 */
define( 'AUTH_KEY',         'xxx' );
define( 'SECURE_AUTH_KEY',  'xxx' );
define( 'LOGGED_IN_KEY',    'xxx' );
define( 'NONCE_KEY',        'xxx' );
define( 'AUTH_SALT',        'xxx' );
define( 'SECURE_AUTH_SALT', 'xxx' );
define( 'LOGGED_IN_SALT',   'xxx' );
define( 'NONCE_SALT',       'xxx' );

/**#@-*/

/**
 * WordPress Database Table prefix.
 *
 * You can have multiple installations in one database if you give each
 * a unique prefix. Only numbers, letters, and underscores please!
 */
$table_prefix = 'wp_';

/**
 * For developers: WordPress debugging mode.
 *
 * Change this to true to enable the display of notices during development.
 * It is strongly recommended that plugin and theme developers use WP_DEBUG
 * in their development environments.
 *
 * For information on other constants that can be used for debugging,
 * visit the documentation.
 *
 * @link https://wordpress.org/support/article/debugging-in-wordpress/
 */
define( 'WP_DEBUG', true );
define( 'WP_DEBUG_LOG', '/tmp/wp-debug.log');

/* URL Locations */

/* Always use HTTPS */
$_SERVER['HTTPS']='on';

/** SSL */   
define('FORCE_SSL_ADMIN', true);

/* Multisite */
define('WP_ALLOW_MULTISITE', true);
define('MULTISITE', true);
define('SUBDOMAIN_INSTALL', false);
define('DOMAIN_CURRENT_SITE', 'www.draggoo.com');
define('PATH_CURRENT_SITE', '/wordpress/');
define('SITE_ID_CURRENT_SITE', 1);
define('BLOG_ID_CURRENT_SITE', 1);

/* That's all, stop editing! Happy publishing. */

/** Absolute path to the WordPress directory. */
if ( ! defined( 'ABSPATH' ) ) {
        define( 'ABSPATH', __DIR__ . '/' );
}

/** Sets up WordPress vars and included files. */
require_once ABSPATH . 'wp-settings.php';

db.wp_options.home

MariaDB [wordpress]> select * from wp_options where option_name = 'home';
+-----------+-------------+-----------------------------------+----------+
| option_id | option_name | option_value                      | autoload |
+-----------+-------------+-----------------------------------+----------+
|         2 | home        | https://www.draggoo.com/wordpress | yes      |
+-----------+-------------+-----------------------------------+----------+
1 row in set (0.000 sec)

db.wp_2_options.home

MariaDB [wordpress]> select * from wp_2_options where option_name = 'home';
+-----------+-------------+-----------------------------------------+----------+
| option_id | option_name | option_value                            | autoload |
+-----------+-------------+-----------------------------------------+----------+
|         2 | home        | https://www.draggoo.com/wordpress/kevin | yes      |
+-----------+-------------+-----------------------------------------+----------+
1 row in set (0.000 sec)

db.wp_options.siteurl

MariaDB [wordpress]> select * from wp_options where option_name = 'siteurl';
+-----------+-------------+-----------------------------------+----------+
| option_id | option_name | option_value                      | autoload |
+-----------+-------------+-----------------------------------+----------+
|         1 | siteurl     | https://www.draggoo.com/wordpress | yes      |
+-----------+-------------+-----------------------------------+----------+
1 row in set (0.000 sec)

db.wp_2_options.siteurl

MariaDB [wordpress]> select * from wp_2_options where option_name = 'siteurl';
+-----------+-------------+-----------------------------------------+----------+
| option_id | option_name | option_value                            | autoload |
+-----------+-------------+-----------------------------------------+----------+
|         1 | siteurl     | https://www.draggoo.com/wordpress/kevin | yes      |
+-----------+-------------+-----------------------------------------+----------+
1 row in set (0.000 sec)

db.wp_blogs

MariaDB [wordpress]> select * from wp_blogs;
+---------+---------+-----------------+-------------------+---------------------+---------------------+--------+----------+--------+------+---------+---------+
| blog_id | site_id | domain          | path              | registered          | last_updated        | public | archived | mature | spam | deleted | lang_id |
+---------+---------+-----------------+-------------------+---------------------+---------------------+--------+----------+--------+------+---------+---------+
|       1 |       1 | www.draggoo.com | /wordpress/       | 2020-06-04 23:52:39 | 0000-00-00 00:00:00 |      1 |        0 |      0 |    0 |       0 |       0 |
|       2 |       1 | www.draggoo.com | /wordpress/kevin/ | 2020-06-15 03:30:50 | 2020-06-15 03:30:50 |      1 |        0 |      0 |    0 |       0 |       0 |
+---------+---------+-----------------+-------------------+---------------------+---------------------+--------+----------+--------+------+---------+---------+
2 rows in set (0.000 sec)

.htaccess
I deleted this file since I’m using nginx.

Final Thoughts
I prefer to know the “why” for changes instead of blindly trying different options, though I’m not opposed to suggestions based on experience.
And thank you in advance for your help!

~Kevin

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