Everything goes to the homepage

I made a mess of things with my site when i updated from from Ubuntu 14.04 LTS to 16.04LTS.

I wiped everything and started again with 16.04 LTS.

I did --php7 --mysql --letsencrypt

now no matter what link i click on it get sent to the homepage.

i checked the error log and nothing that could help the situation came up.

anyone have any tips on tracking down the issue?

thanks