Getting mod rewrite working in Ubuntu 8.10.
Had to get Mod rewrite working, but I kept getting the dreaded server configuration 500-error messages. Did some checking and it turns out that you need to do some config work beforehand.
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/EnablingUseOfApacheHtaccessFiles
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=255556
In short, you need to enable mod rewrites in the Apache configuration and install the apache “rewrite” module. After this I rebooted my system (restart wasn’t working) and the problem was solved.