Assigning the web middleware group shouldn't be necessary as it is applied automatically by laravel.

Try changing your server config so that it points towards the public folder as the site root.

Thanks for chipping in.

Ok, in routes.php I commented out the Route::group(['middleware' => ['web']], function () { , in app.php I set the app root to /public and in Kernel.php I moved all of this \Illuminate\Foundation\Http\Middleware\CheckForMaintenanceMode::class, \App\Http\Middleware\EncryptCookies::class, \Illuminate\Cookie\Middleware\AddQueuedCookiesToResponse::class, \Illuminate\Session\Middleware\StartSession::class, \App\Http\Middleware\VerifyCsrfToken::class, \Illuminate\View\Middleware\ShareErrorsFromSession::class, out of the web middleware group to the global middleware. I still get a not found when I try to submit the form. If I put a breakpoint in index.php it only gets hit for the root url. /task doesn't even hit index.php.

I just added a dummy route to routes.php

Route::get("/fish", function () { return 'this is a get'; });

And if I try to go straight to it, (http get) I still see a 404.

This is what should be set by default in your Kernel.php

    protected $middleware = [
        \Illuminate\Foundation\Http\Middleware\CheckForMaintenanceMode::class,
    ];

    /**
     * The application's route middleware groups.
     *
     * @var array
     */
    protected $middlewareGroups = [
        'web' => [
            \App\Http\Middleware\EncryptCookies::class,
            \Illuminate\Cookie\Middleware\AddQueuedCookiesToResponse::class,
            \Illuminate\Session\Middleware\StartSession::class,
            \Illuminate\View\Middleware\ShareErrorsFromSession::class,
            \App\Http\Middleware\VerifyCsrfToken::class,
        ],

        'api' => [
            'throttle:60,1',
        ],
    ];

    /**
     * The application's route middleware.
     *
     * These middleware may be assigned to groups or used individually.
     *
     * @var array
     */
    protected $routeMiddleware = [
        'auth' => \App\Http\Middleware\Authenticate::class,
        'auth.basic' => \Illuminate\Auth\Middleware\AuthenticateWithBasicAuth::class,
        'can' => \Illuminate\Foundation\Http\Middleware\Authorize::class,
        'guest' => \App\Http\Middleware\RedirectIfAuthenticated::class,
        'throttle' => \Illuminate\Routing\Middleware\ThrottleRequests::class,
    ];

which is the default. Don't remove the web middleware group.

Make sure that in your .env file, APP_DEBUG is set to true. Will give you more feedback if something goes wrong.

With that Kernel.php I get

Undefined variable: errors (View: /var/www/html/quickstart/resources/views/common/errors.blade.php) (View: /var/www/html/quickstart/resources/views/common/errors.blade.php), and the solution I got from SO was to put the ShareErrorsFromSession class in the $middleware array.

What's curious is that index.php is never hit except for app root ('/')'.

Mark