Apache2: Forbidden You don't have permission to access /dir/ on this server

I can access localhost but not the sub directories index.html

My default conf looks like:

<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost
DocumentRoot /var/www
<Directory /> Options FollowSymLinks AllowOverride None
</Directory>
<Directory /var/www/*/> Allow from None Order allow,deny
</Directory>
<Directory /var/www/> Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews AllowOverride None Order allow,deny allow from all
</Directory>
ScriptAlias /cgi-bin/ /usr/lib/cgi-bin/
<Directory "/usr/lib/cgi-bin"> AllowOverride None Options +ExecCGI -MultiViews +SymLinksIfOwnerMatch Order allow,deny Allow from all
</Directory>
ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
# Possible values include: debug, info, notice, warn, error, crit,
# alert, emerg.
LogLevel warn
CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined

Even after allowing read/edit/write access to the directory, its showing Forbidden error. Tried all possible ways out in forums, didnt worked. Anyone has a solution.

Between above I tried something for sub directory access:

<Directory /var/www/*/> Allow from None Order allow,deny
</Directory>

Please suggest me possible solution. Thanks!

2 Answers

Let's make the vhost clear:

<VirtualHost *:80> ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost DocumentRoot /var/www <Directory /> Options FollowSymLinks AllowOverride None </Directory> <Directory /var/www/> Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews AllowOverride None Order allow,deny allow from all </Directory> ScriptAlias /cgi-bin/ /usr/lib/cgi-bin/ <Directory "/usr/lib/cgi-bin"> AllowOverride None Options +ExecCGI -MultiViews +SymLinksIfOwnerMatch Order allow,deny Allow from all </Directory> ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log # Possible values include: debug, info, notice, warn, error, crit, # alert, emerg. LogLevel warn CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined
</VirtualHost>

Then make sure you set the right permission like this:

sudo adduser <username> www-data
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www
sudo chmod -R g+rw /var/www

This works for me, very well:

<Directory "/var/www"> AllowOverride None Require all granted
</Directory>

Checkout this tutorial: