mod_rewrite wasn't working so while fixing it getting 403 forbidden - apache

Question

On ubuntu 13.10 I am using apache 2.4.x . I was having problem with mod_rewrite. I enabled that module and and restarted the server but .htaccess file wasn't still working so I after some search, I read an answer from stackoverflow pointing towards: http://smarttips.in/htaccess-redirect-not-working-apache/
I was missing point 2 in the above link. So I put that code in my 000-default.conf file.
DocumentRoot /var/www
<Directory />
Options FollowSymLinks
AllowOverride All
</Directory>
<Directory /var/www/>
Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
AllowOverride All
Order allow,deny
allow from all
</Directory>
As I am using apache2.4+ so as told here: http://httpd.apache.org/docs/current/upgrading.html
Order allow, deny
Allow from all
to
Require all granted
Here is code in my 000-default.conf file:
<VirtualHost *:80>
# The ServerName directive sets the request scheme, hostname and port that
# the server uses to identify itself. This is used when creating
# redirection URLs. In the context of virtual hosts, the ServerName
# specifies what hostname must appear in the request's Host: header to
# match this virtual host. For the default virtual host (this file) this
# value is not decisive as it is used as a last resort host regardless.
# However, you must set it for any further virtual host explicitly.
#ServerName www.example.com
ServerAdmin webmaster#localhost
DocumentRoot /var/www
<Directory />
Options FollowSymLinks
AllowOverride All
</Directory>
<Directory /var/www/>
Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
AllowOverride All
Require all granted
</Directory>
# Available loglevels: trace8, ..., trace1, debug, info, notice, warn,
# error, crit, alert, emerg.
# It is also possible to configure the loglevel for particular
# modules, e.g.
#LogLevel info ssl:warn
ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined
# For most configuration files from conf-available/, which are
# enabled or disabled at a global level, it is possible to
# include a line for only one particular virtual host. For example the
# following line enables the CGI configuration for this host only
# after it has been globally disabled with "a2disconf".
#Include conf-available/serve-cgi-bin.conf
</VirtualHost>
But after entering that code from that link, now server is giving 403 forbidden, saying:
You don't have permission to access /mysite/ on this server.
Apache/2.4.6 (Ubuntu) Server at localhost Port 80
So not sure if that mod_rewrite problem is solved or not but also getting now permissions error.
Let me know if I need to put .htaccess code here too.
So any idea what am I doing wrong ?

Answer 1

I simply removed:
DocumentRoot /var/www
<Directory />
Options FollowSymLinks
AllowOverride All
</Directory>
<Directory /var/www/>
Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
AllowOverride All
Order allow,deny
allow from all
</Directory>
and put this instead:
DocumentRoot /var/www
<Directory /var/www>
AllowOverride All
</Directory>
And now that permission error is gone and mod_rewrite is working as expected.

Answer 2

Adding this to <Directory /var/www/html>
Options +SymLinksIfOwnerMatch
helped me.