See, the part where you're going wrong is changing things that shouldn't be changed. You can't change variables like $rss and still expect the feed to display.
Once you've changed the appropriate config values, check to see if it works. If it doesn't work, then you can post here with the code you've got and someone can try to help you - no one in their right might will try to undo all of your unnecessary changes :/ use clean unmodified code, change the configs, then post your code here and i'll have a look.