If the CakePHP welcome page looks a little funny (no images or css styles)

Occasionally a new user will run in to mod_rewrite issues, so I'll mention them marginally here. If the CakePHP welcome page looks a little funny (no images or css styles), it probably means mod_rewrite isn't functioning on your system. Here are some tips to help get you up and running:

1. Make sure that an .htaccess override is allowed: in your httpd.conf, you should have a section that defines a section for each Directory on your server. Make sure the AllowOverride is set to All for the correct Directory. For security and performance reasons, do not set AllowOverride to All in <Directory />. Instead, look for the <Directory> block that refers to your actual website directory.

2. Make sure you are editing the correct httpd.conf rather than a user- or site-specific httpd.conf.

3. For some reason or another, you might have obtained a copy of CakePHP without the needed .htaccess files. This sometimes happens because some operating systems treat files that start with '.' as hidden, and don't copy them. Make sure your copy of CakePHP is from the downloads section of the site or our git repository.

4. Make sure Apache is loading up mod_rewrite correctly! You should see something like LoadModule rewrite_module libexec/httpd/mod_rewrite.so or (for Apache 1.3) AddModule mod_rewrite.c in your httpd.conf.

http://book.cakephp.org/view/1533/A-Note-on-mod_rewrite