Why is my laravel 5.1.* project not working properly on XAMPP linux

I have been working on two laravel 5.1.* projects. I have been using the built-in server and running the projects like so:

php artisan serve
http://localhost:8000

Everything has been working perfectly but now I have copied both projects and place in my htdocs directory and accessing them like so:

Project one: http://localhost/lara_rocks1/public/

This works when I simply navigate across pages but no authentication and registration function works. I use the the traits shipped with laravel to implement auth. For example, when I click login, logout etc, the page just refreshes and nothing happens. What can be the problem?

Project two: http://localhost/the_future/public/auth/login

For this case, just a blank page is shown. What are my missing out?

Below is the content of my .htaccess file in public folder:

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
    <IfModule mod_negotiation.c>
        Options -MultiViews
    </IfModule>

    RewriteEngine On

    # Redirect Trailing Slashes If Not A Folder...
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
    RewriteRule ^(.*)/$ /$1 [L,R=301]

    # Handle Front Controller...
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
    RewriteRule ^ index.php [L]
</IfModule>

Appreciate help

via Chebli Mohamed