virtualhost homepage is working, but links are not - macos

Question

I have a site made in Drupal, I finally was forced to set up virtual hosts for XAMPP, given that I am managing multiple local versions. I followed the seemingly straightforward help guides for OSX, however, ONLY the fornt page works, WITH populated data. ANY RESTFUL link however gets a 404.
/Applications/XAMPP/xamppfiles/etc/extra/httpd-vhosts.conf:
<VirtualHost p1>
ServerName p1
DocumentRoot /Users/path/to/p1
</VirtualHost>
<VirtualHost p2>
ServerAdmin email#p2.org
ServerName p2
DocumentRoot /Users/path/to/p2
RewriteEngine On
RewriteOptions inherit
</VirtualHost>
httpd.conf in both /Applications/XAMPP/xampp/etc and /etc/apache2 are uncommented:
# Virtual hosts
Include /Applications/XAMPP/etc/extra/httpd-vhosts.conf
hosts file in /etc/ :
127.0.0.1 p1
127.0.0.1 p2
within the /Users/path/to/p2 the .htaccess file is:
#
# Apache/PHP/Drupal settings:
#
# Protect files and directories from prying eyes.
<FilesMatch "\.(engine|inc|info|install|make|module|profile|test|po|sh|.*sql|theme|tpl(\.php)?|xtmpl)$|^(\..*|Entries.*|Repository|Root|Tag|Template)$">
Order allow,deny
</FilesMatch>
# Don't show directory listings for URLs which map to a directory.
Options -Indexes
# Follow symbolic links in this directory.
Options +FollowSymLinks
# Make Drupal handle any 404 errors.
ErrorDocument 404 /index.php
# Set the default handler.
DirectoryIndex index.php index.html index.htm
# Override PHP settings that cannot be changed at runtime. See
# sites/default/default.settings.php and drupal_environment_initialize() in
# includes/bootstrap.inc for settings that can be changed at runtime.
# PHP 5, Apache 1 and 2.
<IfModule mod_php5.c>
php_flag magic_quotes_gpc off
php_flag magic_quotes_sybase off
php_flag register_globals off
php_flag session.auto_start off
php_value mbstring.http_input pass
php_value mbstring.http_output pass
php_flag mbstring.encoding_translation off
</IfModule>
# Requires mod_expires to be enabled.
<IfModule mod_expires.c>
# Enable expirations.
ExpiresActive On
# Cache all files for 2 weeks after access (A).
ExpiresDefault A1209600
<FilesMatch \.php$>
# Do not allow PHP scripts to be cached unless they explicitly send cache
# headers themselves. Otherwise all scripts would have to overwrite the
# headers set by mod_expires if they want another caching behavior. This may
# fail if an error occurs early in the bootstrap process, and it may cause
# problems if a non-Drupal PHP file is installed in a subdirectory.
ExpiresActive Off
</FilesMatch>
</IfModule>
# Various rewrite rules.
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine on
# Block access to "hidden" directories whose names begin with a period. This
# includes directories used by version control systems such as Subversion or
# Git to store control files. Files whose names begin with a period, as well
# as the control files used by CVS, are protected by the FilesMatch directive
# above.
#
# NOTE: This only works when mod_rewrite is loaded. Without mod_rewrite, it is
# not possible to block access to entire directories from .htaccess, because
# <DirectoryMatch> is not allowed here.
#
# If you do not have mod_rewrite installed, you should remove these
# directories from your webroot or otherwise protect them from being
# downloaded.
RewriteRule "(^|/)\." - [F]
# If your site can be accessed both with and without the 'www.' prefix, you
# can use one of the following settings to redirect users to your preferred
# URL, either WITH or WITHOUT the 'www.' prefix. Choose ONLY one option:
#
# To redirect all users to access the site WITH the 'www.' prefix,
# (http://example.com/... will be redirected to http://www.example.com/...)
# uncomment the following:
# RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^www\. [NC]
# RewriteRule ^ http://www.%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI} [L,R=301]
#
# To redirect all users to access the site WITHOUT the 'www.' prefix,
# (http://www.example.com/... will be redirected to http://example.com/...)
# uncomment the following:
# RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www\.(.+)$ [NC]
# RewriteRule ^ http://%1%{REQUEST_URI} [L,R=301]
# Modify the RewriteBase if you are using Drupal in a subdirectory or in a
# VirtualDocumentRoot and the rewrite rules are not working properly.
# For example if your site is at http://example.com/drupal uncomment and
# modify the following line:
# RewriteBase /drupal
#
# If your site is running in a VirtualDocumentRoot at http://example.com/,
# uncomment the following line:
# RewriteBase /
# Pass all requests not referring directly to files in the filesystem to
# index.php. Clean URLs are handled in drupal_environment_initialize().
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !=/favicon.ico
RewriteRule ^ index.php [L]
# Rules to correctly serve gzip compressed CSS and JS files.
# Requires both mod_rewrite and mod_headers to be enabled.
<IfModule mod_headers.c>
# Serve gzip compressed CSS files if they exist and the client accepts gzip.
RewriteCond %{HTTP:Accept-encoding} gzip
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME}\.gz -s
RewriteRule ^(.*)\.css $1\.css\.gz [QSA]
# Serve gzip compressed JS files if they exist and the client accepts gzip.
RewriteCond %{HTTP:Accept-encoding} gzip
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME}\.gz -s
RewriteRule ^(.*)\.js $1\.js\.gz [QSA]
# Serve correct content types, and prevent mod_deflate double gzip.
RewriteRule \.css\.gz$ - [T=text/css,E=no-gzip:1]
RewriteRule \.js\.gz$ - [T=text/javascript,E=no-gzip:1]
<FilesMatch "(\.js\.gz|\.css\.gz)$">
# Serve correct encoding type.
Header set Content-Encoding gzip
# Force proxies to cache gzipped & non-gzipped css/js files separately.
Header append Vary Accept-Encoding
</FilesMatch>
</IfModule>
</IfModule>
These are the same settings I originally uploaded to the server and the same ones on the server currently. I even pulled them off the server again to make sure they are duplicates.
What am I missing? I can not access the urls directly either. Somehow the routing isn't getting done properly is my best guess.
Upon accessing the homepage, the access_log is:
127.0.0.1 - - [14/Dec/2012:04:53:25 -0500] "GET / HTTP/1.1" 200 13838
127.0.0.1 - - [14/Dec/2012:04:53:26 -0500] "GET /modules/system/system.base.css?menhjd HTTP/1.1" 304 -
127.0.0.1 - - [14/Dec/2012:04:53:26 -0500] "GET /modules/system/system.menus.css?menhjd HTTP/1.1" 304 -
127.0.0.1 - - [14/Dec/2012:04:53:26 -0500] "GET /modules/comment/comment.css?menhjd HTTP/1.1" 304 -
127.0.0.1 - - [14/Dec/2012:04:53:26 -0500] "GET /sites/all/modules/date/date_api/date.css?menhjd HTTP/1.1" 304 -
127.0.0.1 - - [14/Dec/2012:04:53:26 -0500] "GET /modules/system/system.messages.css?menhjd HTTP/1.1" 304 -
127.0.0.1 - - [14/Dec/2012:04:53:26 -0500] "GET /modules/system/system.theme.css?menhjd HTTP/1.1" 304 -
127.0.0.1 - - [14/Dec/2012:04:53:26 -0500] "GET /sites/all/modules/date/date_popup/themes/datepicker.1.7.css?menhjd HTTP/1.1" 304 -
127.0.0.1 - - [14/Dec/2012:04:53:26 -0500] "GET /sites/all/modules/date/date_repeat_field/date_repeat_field.css?menhjd HTTP/1.1" 304 -
127.0.0.1 - - [14/Dec/2012:04:53:26 -0500] "GET /modules/node/node.css?menhjd HTTP/1.1" 304 -
127.0.0.1 - - [14/Dec/2012:04:53:26 -0500] "GET /modules/field/theme/field.css?menhjd HTTP/1.1" 304 -
127.0.0.1 - - [14/Dec/2012:04:53:26 -0500] "GET /modules/search/search.css?menhjd HTTP/1.1" 304 -
127.0.0.1 - - [14/Dec/2012:04:53:26 -0500] "GET /modules/user/user.css?menhjd HTTP/1.1" 304 -
127.0.0.1 - - [14/Dec/2012:04:53:26 -0500] "GET /sites/all/modules/views/css/views.css?menhjd HTTP/1.1" 304 -
127.0.0.1 - - [14/Dec/2012:04:53:26 -0500] "GET /sites/all/modules/ctools/css/ctools.css?menhjd HTTP/1.1" 304 -
127.0.0.1 - - [14/Dec/2012:04:53:26 -0500] "GET /themes/bartik/css/layout.css?menhjd HTTP/1.1" 304 -
127.0.0.1 - - [14/Dec/2012:04:53:26 -0500] "GET /themes/bartik/css/style.css?menhjd HTTP/1.1" 304 -
127.0.0.1 - - [14/Dec/2012:04:53:26 -0500] "GET /themes/bartik/css/colors.css?menhjd HTTP/1.1" 304 -
127.0.0.1 - - [14/Dec/2012:04:53:26 -0500] "GET /themes/bartik/css/print.css?menhjd HTTP/1.1" 304 -
127.0.0.1 - - [14/Dec/2012:04:53:26 -0500] "GET /misc/jquery.once.js?v=1.2 HTTP/1.1" 304 -
127.0.0.1 - - [14/Dec/2012:04:53:26 -0500] "GET /misc/jquery.js?v=1.4.4 HTTP/1.1" 304 -
127.0.0.1 - - [14/Dec/2012:04:53:26 -0500] "GET /misc/drupal.js?menhjd HTTP/1.1" 304 -
127.0.0.1 - - [14/Dec/2012:04:53:26 -0500] "GET /themes/bartik/logo.png HTTP/1.1" 304 -
127.0.0.1 - - [14/Dec/2012:04:53:26 -0500] "GET /themes/bartik/images/buttons.png HTTP/1.1" 304 -
127.0.0.1 - - [14/Dec/2012:04:53:26 -0500] "GET /misc/feed.png HTTP/1.1" 304 -
and then clicking on a link:
the error_log is:
[Fri Dec 14 04:55:45 2012] [error] [client 127.0.0.1] File does not exist: /Users/path/to/p1/projects, referer: http://p1
WHY IS THE SERVER LOOKING FOR A FOLDER, when it should be looking to the database based on the RESTFUL URL?
and the access_log is:
127.0.0.1 - - [14/Dec/2012:04:55:45 -0500] "GET /projects HTTP/1.1" 404 1204
also, the .ht.sqlite permissions are user (read and write), staff (read only) and everyone (read and write
EVEN if the db file wasn't accessible, that would then also preclude the homepage from displaying the current data in the file.....

Answer 1

The httpd-vhosts.conf needs to be updated to include the directory as well.
According to this site:
Lock the site down
You can lock your development site down and prevent outsiders from accessing it on your server by adding the right configurations. Something like the following will prevent outside access to this virtual host:
<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerName p2
DocumentRoot "/Users/path/to/site"
<Directory "/Users/path/to/site">
Options Includes FollowSymLinks
AllowOverride All
Order deny,allow
Deny from all
Allow from 127.0.0.1
</Directory>
</VirtualHost>
OR 2. Allow outside access
Of course, you may want to be able to access the site from somewhere other than your development machine so you could use something like:
<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerName p2
DocumentRoot "/Users/path/to/site"
<Directory "/Users/path/to/site">
Options Includes FollowSymLinks
AllowOverride All
Order allow,deny
Allow from all
</Directory>
</VirtualHost>

Answer 2

Edit the Httpd-vhosts.conf file in xampp > apache > conf > extra
Restart apache.
Go to your website/wp-admin and log in. Go to settings > permalinks, and click save on your permalinks. If you have your .htaccess file in version control, you will notice it will have edited some values.
This will allow you to fix your issue like it did for me