Correct, mod rewrite is required although i manually double check that all required modules are enabled. I also noticed that passbolt does not get shipped with a .htaccess to rewrite the urls to point to index.
i placed this in /usr/share/php/passbolt/webroot/.htaccess
RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php
Awesome
Thank You for your help, it is much appreciated 