Can't configure 'remove index.php'

If the garbage you added at the beginning of .htaccess is not producing an error that would tend to indicate the either mod_rewrite is not active or that .htaccess is not in the correct place. .htaccess should be in the same directory as index.php

You can view loaded apache modules by using the linux command console and the command apache2ctl -M Look for rewrite_module in the list that appears.