By default Apache2 doesn’t enable mod_userdir, a module to enable all users in your Linux system to host web pages. On Debian, it’s very to enable this mod, and probably with other modules as well. There is no need to edit the config file manually.
There are two tools offered by Debian to assist you with enabling and disabling the modules in Apache2: a2enmod and a2dismod. As the name inferred, a2enmod enables the modules, while the a2dismod does the opposite.
In my case, all I need to do is to type the following commands as the root (, or using sudo):
Then restart the apache2 server: