Can't remove index.php, custom route not working - php

Question

I know this question is more appropriate for Server Fault but unfortunately I was banned for poor quality questions (I was down voted on 2-3 questions I asked.) So the next best place to ask these questions are here.
I have two problems related to CodeIgniter routing.
The first problem is that I can't seem to get rid of index.php in the url. I followed the instructions on how to remove it. I have the following mod rewrite code in my .htaccess file (see below) at the root of my WAMP server (CI is located at the root, not in its own folder). I have uncommented this line in httpd.conf file LoadModule rewrite_module modules/mod_rewrite.so. I deleted index.php from $config['index_page'] = "index.php";. And I restarted all WAMP services.
My second problem is that I have a controller called search and a method called index. I would like to change the resultant URL from http://localhost/index.php/search/index to http://localhost/search/whatever_im_searching_for. I tried the following custom route in my routes.php file but it did not work: $route['search/(.*)'] = "search/$1";
RewriteEngine On
# Put your installation directory here:
# If your URL is www.example.com/, use /
# If your URL is www.example.com/site_folder/, use /site_folder/
RewriteBase /
# Do not enable rewriting for files or directories that exist
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
# For reuests that are not actual files or directories,
# Rewrite to index.php/URL
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php/$1 [PT,L]
I am struggling to understand the code in .htaccess and on how to use CI's custom routing. Any assistance will be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance.
EDIT 1

Answer 1

Edit your htaccess like this:
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^system.*
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php?/$1 [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^LoginTut.*
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php?/$1 [L]
RewriteCond $1 !^(index\.php|images|table-images|js|robots\.txt|css|captcha)
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php?$1 [L]
</IfModule>
<IfModule !mod_rewrite.c>
ErrorDocument 404 index.php
</IfModule>
To have your searchterms in the url you can look at this:
https://stackoverflow.com/a/12070284/1379394

Answer 2

Second problem:
$route['search/(:any)'] = "search/index/$1";

Answer 3

Check Apache's default config file. On WAMP it's probably in
<WAMPSERVER_HOME>\bin\apache\Apache2.2.xx\conf
If it looks like this:
DocumentRoot /var/www
<Directory />
Options FollowSymLinks
AllowOverride None
</Directory>
<Directory /var/www/>
Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
AllowOverride None
Order allow,deny
allow from all
</Directory>
then change both:
AllowOverride None
to:
AllowOverride All

Answer 4

I had the same problem and I fixed only by write in my .htaccess:
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond $1 !^(index\.php|images|robots\.txt)
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php/$1 [L]
and it's working perfectly.