apache2 .htaccess error on ubuntu + apache2 + rvm + passenger + rails

Question

I followed https://help.ubuntu.com/10.04/serverguide/C/index.html to setup my ubuntu server

Installed

• apache2, mysql, imagemagick, ... as "root" instead of "sudo"
• "rvm" as user. passenger as user

When I access my rails site, I get this error as in /var/log/apache2/error.log

(13)Permission denied: /home/my_home_directory/.htaccess pcfg_openfile: unable to check htaccess file, ensure it is readable

1. What am I missing here?
2. Did I do something very wrong by installing basic packages as "root" instead of "sudo"? (How to fix that, if at all)

Answer 1

You probably need to change rights on this file, to give read access to your webserver user.

chmod o+r /home/my_home_directory/.htaccess

Also, this question probably belongs to Serverfault.