WordPress MU

I am looking to use WPMU and BuddyPress for a new site and have just finished installing WPMU. I am able to log in, create new users, go through the various dash board contents and create a test blog.

The test blog has a link on the home page http://as7.bluefishwireless.com/wordpressmu/ but when I click the link I get
The requested URL /wordpressmu/2009/06/07/jamess-first-blog/ was not found on this server.
Apache/2.2.8 (Ubuntu) PHP/5.2.4-2ubuntu5 with Suhosin-Patch Server at as7.bluefishwireless.com Port 80

I have tried to go through the various instructions to configure apache2 but am having no luck.

In /var/www/wordpressmu I have htaccess.dist file with following contents;
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase BASE/

#uploaded files
RewriteRule ^(.*/)?files/$ index.php [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !.*wp-content/plugins.*
RewriteRule ^(.*/)?files/(.*) wp-content/blogs.php?file=$2 [L]

# add a trailing slash to /wp-admin
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^.*/wp-admin$
RewriteRule ^(.+)$ $1/ [R=301,L]

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -f [OR]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -d
RewriteRule . - [L]
RewriteRule ^([_0-9a-zA-Z-]+/)?(wp-.*) $2 [L]
RewriteRule ^([_0-9a-zA-Z-]+/)?(.*\.php)$ $2 [L]
RewriteRule . index.php [L]

<IfModule mod_security.c>
<Files async-upload.php>
SecFilterEngine Off
SecFilterScanPOST Off
</Files>
</IfModule>

In /etc/apache2 I have an empty htaccess.conf file and an apache2.conf file where I have changed the default directory lines to
# Alias /error/ "/usr/share/apache2/error/"
#
<Directory "/usr/share/apache2/error">
AllowOverride FileInfo Options
Options IncludesNoExec
AddOutputFilter Includes html
AddHandler type-map var
Order allow,deny
Allow from all
# LanguagePriority en cs de es fr it nl sv pt-br ro
# ForceLanguagePriority Prefer Fallback
</Directory>
This is where I found the 'AllowOveride' and thought it must have been where I needed to make the changes.

I am very new to configuring apache so any help to fix this problem would be very much appreciated.

Yeah, the rewrite base on your htaccess is wrong. Did you let WPMU create it for you?

UPDATE, sorry misread your post, what are the contents of your .htaccess file? The htaccess.dist file is just a sample file.

Either mod_rewrite is not enabled on your server, or Apache can't read the htaccess file.

I posted the htaccess.conf file contents above. Is this the wrong file? Where do I find the .htaccess file if this is a different one?

How do I enable mod_rewrite? Is this in the apache2.conf file? The documentation talks about the httpd.conf file but this file is empty on my machine. It is in /etc/apache2

Thanks for the fast responses! I am a total novice so likely am missing something very easy.

you posted the content of the .htaccess.dist file which is the template wpmu uses to create the .htaccess file during isntallation.

mod_rewrite is an apache2 module enabling depends on your OS, with debian its somethign like 'a2enmod mod_rewrite' but usually you can't just enable modules, your host has to do that for you or are you on a root or VPS server?

I have a server running in a colo built on Ubuntu 8.04. The machine is our companies. I can log in as root, but I have no experience with apache or enabling modules.

can you connect to it with FTP and set your FTP client to display hidden files. At the root of your mu site /wordpressmu/ there should now be a .htaccess file, that's the one that's needed.

If there isn't one then that is half of your problem.

ok thanks for that explanation. The .htaccess is in my /var/www/wordpressmu folder with the following contents

RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /wordpressmu/

#uploaded files
RewriteRule ^(.*/)?files/$ index.php [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !.*wp-content/plugins.*
RewriteRule ^(.*/)?files/(.*) wp-content/blogs.php?file=$2 [L]

# add a trailing slash to /wp-admin
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^.*/wp-admin$
RewriteRule ^(.+)$ $1/ [R=301,L]

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -f [OR]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -d
RewriteRule . - [L]
RewriteRule ^([_0-9a-zA-Z-]+/)?(wp-.*) $2 [L]
RewriteRule ^([_0-9a-zA-Z-]+/)?(.*\.php)$ $2 [L]
RewriteRule . index.php [L]

<IfModule mod_security.c>
<Files async-upload.php>
SecFilterEngine Off
SecFilterScanPOST Off
</Files>
</IfModule>

Do I need to make changes to this?

Can anyone please assist me on this? I am stuck.