Installing Rails on Ubuntu Dapper / Edgy

Update 2010-03-25: Bumped to RubyGems version 1.3.6.

Update 2009-02-19: Bumped to RubyGems version 1.3.1 and MySQL 5 libraries. This guide now works for all recent version of Ubuntu and Debian. Enjoy!

Installing Ruby on Rails on your Ubuntu box is not always as easy as it seems. Here’s a comprehensive overview of the steps you need to take. Mostly you’ll be using apt-get and gems, so it’s not all that hard after all.

This method was tested on both Dapper and Edgy systems. It may work on other Ubuntu releases as well. It’s also possible that it works on Debian.

Besides Rails, I’ll also be install mysql and sqlite3 support.

1. Install Ruby

Before putting anything on Rails, install Ruby.

1sudo apt-get install irb1.8 libreadline-ruby1.8 libruby libruby1.8 rdoc1.8 ruby ruby1.8 ruby1.8-dev

You may now check what version of Ruby you have by running ruby -v. It’s just for your information.

2. Install Ruby Gems

Surf to http://rubyforge.org/frs/?group_id=126 and download the latest available gems pacakge in tgz format. (You may also use the zip if you feel comfortable.)

1wget http://rubyforge.org/frs/download.php/69365/rubygems-1.3.6.tgz
2tar zxf rubygems-1.3.6.tgz
3cd rubygems-1.3.6
4sudo ruby setup.rb
5sudo ln -sf /usr/bin/gem1.8 /usr/bin/gem

3. Install Rails!

You may now install Rails now!

1sudo gem install rails

That’s it! Well, almost. You probably want some other things as well.

4. Install development tools

Before you continue, stop a moment to install some development tools. These tools are probably needed to compile and install the gems we are going to install next.

1sudo apt-get install build-essential

MySQL Support

You probably want MySQL Ruby support. The MySQL code in Rails sucks (no offence), but the Ruby code is much better. You should install it. Rails will notice that it’s available and use it.

First, install MySQL.

1sudo apt-get install mysql-server mysql-client

Next, install development files for MySQL. We’ll need these in order to make Ruby understand.

1sudo apt-get install libmysqlclient15-dev

Then, you may install the gem

1sudo gem install mysql

You have to choose what version you want to install. Enter the number corresponding with the latest version that is tagged ‘ruby’. Installing win32 stuff on linux is generally not a good thing.

SQLite 3

For SQLite 3 you need to install some packages before installing the gem.

1sudo apt-get install sqlite3 libsqlite3-dev
2sudo gem install sqlite3-ruby

If things go wrong

If things go wrong, make sure you installed all recommended packages mentioned above. Also , check any log files that the error message refers to.

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