After reading the initial 3 chapters of the book Nginx HTTP server – Third Edition, I was ready to tackle the permalinks problem again. I started adjusting the nginx.conf file with renewed knowledge. Something interesting happened when I adjusted the server_name to .fossadventures.com and tested the nginx.conf file. The test indicated that this server name was already in use.

I decided to look for additional .conf files in /etc/nginx. And then found the culprid in the vhosts.d folder. This xxx.conf file contained the configuration of my website. I created a copy “xxx2.conf” and started editing it according to the solution described in my last post. Why not try to create a more pleasing 404 page as well? I copied the Cannyon theme its 404.php page into a separate directory and put the directive to this error page in my xxx.conf file.

Then I stopped Nginx, renamed the current xxx.conf file into xxx.conf.back and renamed xxx2.conf into xxx.conf. After restarting Nginx, my site finally showed pretty permalinks. And best of all, when someone puts in an invalid url, they will see a pretty 404 error page.

Published on: 3 April 2018