getting ruby on rails to run on my debian 4 vps

man…always fighting to get a recent version of anything to run on the debian 4 (etch) vps i have. this time: ruby on rails. ruby v1.9.1, gems 1.3.5 and ror 2.3.4 is what i had i mind.

first step: download ruby. execute the usual ./configure && make && make install triplet. worked fine. then download ruby gems. but when i tried to run anything with gem i got:


/usr/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems/custom_require.rb:31:in `gem_original_require': no such file to load -- zlib (LoadError)
from /usr/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems/custom_require.rb:31:in `require'
from /usr/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems/spec_fetcher.rb:1
from /usr/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems/custom_require.rb:31:in `gem_original_require'
from /usr/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems/custom_require.rb:31:in `require'
from /usr/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems/commands/update_command.rb:5
from /usr/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems/custom_require.rb:31:in `gem_original_require'
from /usr/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems/custom_require.rb:31:in `require'
from /usr/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems/command_manager.rb:167:in `load_and_instantiate'
from /usr/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems/command_manager.rb:88:in `[]'
from /usr/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems/command_manager.rb:144:in `find_command'
from /usr/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems/command_manager.rb:131:in `process_args'
from /usr/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems/command_manager.rb:102:in `run'
from /usr/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems/gem_runner.rb:58:in `run'
from /usr/local/bin/gem:21

after googleing and trying some stuff i solved it this way:

  • edit ruby-1.9.1-p0/ext/Setup
  • uncomment the line zlib
  • make && make install again

next step. successfully let gem install rails. but then ruby script/server stopped with:


=> Booting WEBrick
=> Rails 2.3.4 application starting on http://0.0.0.0:3000
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/rails-2.3.4/lib/initializer.rb:271:in `rescue in require_frameworks': no such file to load -- openssl (RuntimeError)
from /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/rails-2.3.4/lib/initializer.rb:268:in `require_frameworks'
from /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/rails-2.3.4/lib/initializer.rb:134:in `process'
from /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/rails-2.3.4/lib/initializer.rb:113:in `run'
from /var/www/rails/ukk/config/environment.rb:9:in `'
from /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/activesupport-2.3.4/lib/active_support/dependencies.rb:156:in `require'
from /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/activesupport-2.3.4/lib/active_support/dependencies.rb:156:in `block in require'
from /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/activesupport-2.3.4/lib/active_support/dependencies.rb:521:in `new_constants_in'
from /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/activesupport-2.3.4/lib/active_support/dependencies.rb:156:in `require'
from /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/rails-2.3.4/lib/commands/server.rb:84:in `'
from script/server:3:in `require'
from script/server:3:in `

'

after a another round i found this site with help:

  • apt-get install openssl libssl-dev
  • apt-get install ruby1.9-dev
  • cd ruby-1.9.1-p129/ext/openssl
  • ruby extconf.rb
  • make && make install

that worked. nice. so now i am waiting for the next fail