Having a hard time rewriting codeigniter uri's - php

Question

I am going through a few codeigniter tutorials online but I got stuck on rewriting uri's.
Here is my .htaccess code.
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase jrdash
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^system.*
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /index.php?/$1 [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^application.*
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /index.php?/$1 [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-F
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-D
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php?/$1 [L]
I also made this change to the config file.
/*
|--------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Index File
|--------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
| Typically this will be your index.php file, unless you've renamed it to
| something else. If you are using mod_rewrite to remove the page set this
| variable so that it is blank.
|
*/
$config['index_page'] = '';
The .htaccess file is in the root project folder, and the project directory is jrdash within my xampp htdocs directory. I get a error when I try to load the page simply by typing in localhost/jrdash, I was getting the default Codeigniter screen before but then I made these changes and now I get an error.

Answer 1

I suggest you remove everything between the first and last-three lines and remove that question mark.
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php/$1 [L]

Answer 2

I didn't read your whole question because I'm pretty sure you've made the very classical mistake: your forgot to add the QSA directive!
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase jrdash
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^system.*
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /index.php?/$1 [QSA,L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^application.*
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /index.php?/$1 [QSA,L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-F
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-D
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php?/$1 [QSA,L]