Description of the problem

By default, SuSE doesn't enable the mod_rewrite rewrite module. It's installed, but not enabled.
Follow these steps to install it.

Solution - enable mod_rewrite on SuSE linux

1. Edit the file /etc/sysconfig/apache2 as root:
   1. search for APACHE_MODULES, you should find a line like this
      APACHE_MODULES="suexec access actions alias auth auth_dbm autoindex cgi dir env expires include log_config mime negotiation setenvif userdir ssl php4"
   2. Add rewrite to the content in the list between the "
   3. Save the changes and quit
2. run SuSEconfig to update the apache configuration files
3. run /etc/init.d/apache2 restart to restart the Apache server

Источник: http://enarion.net/web/apache/htaccess/mod_rewrite-on-suse/