.htaccess chaos vs scratch install

I had an Omeka S setup, my host was bought out, new host only has Classic available.

My original Omeka S site was in a folder /chc/ and I’d planned to eventually migrate the site into the root directory after I’d gotten everything setup - using Softaculous’ one click install + an csv import module.

I tried converting over to Classic, but the features I want/need are not available - relevant because Omeka Classic is presently installed - through Softaculous - into the root dir.

I’ve managed to get Omeka S updated and working (mostly) fine in my /chc/ folder, so I thought I would just put in a domain redirect straight to the chc folder until I finalized everything & was ready to move/rebuild everything to the root directory, however, that is not working for me.

If I put in a base directory for the omeka classic root dir .htaccess, then it does take me to my chc omeka s page, but it seems like it’s not actually overwriting all the things, because it’s not loading up the S theme (and probably other things, I didn’t dig much.)

I tried commenting out all of the Classic’s root dir .htaccess junk and pasting in the S versions /chc/.htaccess file, but that resulted in a 502.

I am feeling like I am over my head. I am positive that I am missing the various “connections” to like application/php.ini and whatever else, but I can’t seem to wrap my old brain around what I need to change/where to change it. This has obviously left me lacking any confidence in my ability to actually migrate my site from chc to the root with a from scratch install of Omkea S.

I have a few questions to hopefully bolster my confidence and/or decide on my next course of action:

How complicated /is/ a scratch install of Omkea S to the root? I read the github instructions, and it looks fairly simple, but… tbh I’m scared! lol

Would a scratch install actually fix my .htaccess file from whatever chaos has been wrought OR will it just try to append non-working commands like doing a redirect through CPanel did? OR do I have to try to fix the file, because I think I’m realizing my limitations on that happening.

Am I better off to just use an HTML page redirect and be happy with that “cheat” - even if all my url’s look like trash? Would that even work or will it just result in the same flaws & errors that editing the .htaccess did?

I’d appreciate any suggestions.

If you just want to take an install you already have in /chc and move it to the root, just clearing out what you have in the root now and moving the install there is probably the simplest option. As long as you move everything in /chc up to the root level, including hidden files like .htaccess, it should work fine.