Lighttpd: specific ~user directory 404 - permissions

Question

I'm trying to get user directories to work with Lighttpd on Arch Linux. But after creating the public_html directory, placing an index.html file in it, setting permissions, configuring Lighttpd to use the user directory module, and restarting lighttpd, it still gives 404 for one specific user (yet another one works).
Here are my configuration files:
$ cat /etc/lighttpd/lighttpd.conf
# This is a minimal example config
# See /usr/share/doc/lighttpd
# and http://redmine.lighttpd.net/projects/lighttpd/wiki/Docs:ConfigurationOptions
server.port = 80
server.username = "http"
server.groupname = "http"
server.document-root = "/srv/http"
server.errorlog = "/var/log/lighttpd/error.log"
dir-listing.activate = "enable"
index-file.names = ( "index.html" )
mimetype.assign = (
".html" => "text/html",
".txt" => "text/plain",
".css" => "text/css",
".js" => "application/x-javascript",
".jpg" => "image/jpeg",
".jpeg" => "image/jpeg",
".gif" => "image/gif",
".png" => "image/png",
"" => "application/octet-stream"
)
include "conf.d/userdir.conf"
include "conf.d/cgi.conf"
$ cat /etc/lighttpd/conf.d/userdir.conf
server.modules += ( "mod_userdir" )
userdir.path = "public_html"
This is what things look like for user aardbei:
$ cat /home/aardbei/public_html/index.html
doot doot
$ ls -ld /home/aardbei/public_html
drwxrwxrwx 2 aardbei aardbei 4096 Mar 27 13:10 /home/aardbei/public_html
$ ls -ld /home/aardbei/public_html/index.html
-rwxrwxrwx 1 aardbei aardbei 37 Mar 27 13:11 /home/aardbei/public_html/index.html
But even after restarting the server with sudo systemctl restart lighttpd I still get 404 at URI /~aardbei/index.html and not what I should get: "doot doot"
However, this is what things look like for the user madeline:
$ cat /home/madeline/public_html/index.html
blah blah blah
$ ls -ld /home/madeline/public_html/
drwxrwxrwx 19 madeline madeline 4096 Mar 27 13:33 /home/madeline/public_html/
$ ls -ld /home/madeline/public_html/index.html
-rw-r--r-- 1 madeline madeline 15 Mar 27 13:33 /home/madeline/public_html/index.html
So the important parts are the same. And yet going to URI /~madeline/index.html does what it should do: it shows "blah blah blah"
Nothing looks relevant here, but here are groups for the two users:
$ groups madeline
wheel video audio wireshark madeline
$ groups aardbei
wheel aardbei
What is going on? Why doesn't the user directory for the user aardbei work in Lighttpd?

Answer 1

Following the instructions on the Arch Linux wiki for Apache worked: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Apache_HTTP_Server#User_directories
$ chmod o+x /home/aardbei
$ chmod o+x /home/aardbei/public_html
$ chmod -R o+r /home/aardbei/public_html
I'm still not sure I understand the permissions at play here, but it solves my problem.

Answer 2

The reason that the accepted answer works is due to the user that the web server is running as requiring access to the user's home directory in order to access their public_html.
Granting o+x allows other users to access a file and/or sub-directory within but not allow them to list the contents of a directory. Basically they can pass through it so long as they know what they're looking for, public_html, but they cannot get a list of the contents otherwise.
Example
Here's my home directory:
$ ls -dl /home/sam
drwx-----x. 3 sam sam 4096 Nov 3 11:08 /home/sam
$ ls -dl /home/sam/public_html
drwxr-xr-x. 2 sam users 4096 Nov 3 11:09 /home/sam/public_html
Now as the user of the web server, lighttpd, cannot list the contents of my home directory:
$ sudo -u lighttpd ls /home/sam
ls: cannot open directory /home/sam: Permission denied
But can see a specific directory if they happen to know its name:
$ ls -dl /home/sam/public_html
drwxr-xr-x. 2 sam users 4096 Nov 3 11:09 /home/sam/public_html
Here's another directory that the web server can see too:
$ sudo -u lighttpd ls -ld /home/sam/someotherdir
drwx------. 2 sam users 4096 Nov 3 11:22 /home/sam/someotherdir
And files within the public_html are visible as well:
$ ls -dl /home/sam/public_html/index.html
-rw-r--r--. 1 sam users 3 Nov 3 11:09 /home/sam/public_html/index.html
Normal permissions apply here, so if you don't want the web server to see something, make it readonly to your user & groups but not everyone else (others).