# "can't activate rails", "already activated rails", and "no such file to load -- breakpoint"

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/cant-activate-rails-already-activated-rails-and-no-such-file-to-load-breakpoint/117668>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [October 19, 2007, 4:46am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/cant-activate-rails-already-activated-rails-and-no-such-file-to-load-breakpoint/117668 "2007-10-19T04:46:06Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![sven](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/e47c2d/32.png) [@sven](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/sven)\
**Post date:** [October 19, 2007, 4:46am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/cant-activate-rails-already-activated-rails-and-no-such-file-to-load-breakpoint/117668/1 "2007-10-19T04:46:06Z")

</div>

I’ve already asked about this on

> **[Rails 2.0: Preview Release](https://rubyonrails.org/2007/9/30/rails-2-0-0-preview-release)**
>
> Behold, behold, Rails 2.0 is almost here. But before we can slap on the final stamp, we’re going to pass through a couple of trial release phases. The first is this preview release, which allows you to sample the goodies in their almost finished...

but am bringing my troubles here as Jeremy K. requested today.

After upgrading my gem rails to the 2.0 preview release (1.2.4.7794  
was the first one I got) I tried creating a new project and installing  
the acts\_as\_attachment plugin. Then I ran rake test:plugins to make  
sure everything is compatible before proceeding with my work and I got  
errors like this:

rubygems.rb:246:in `activate’: can’t activate rails (= 1.2.4),  
already activated rails-1.2.4.7794] (Gem::Exception)

A similar error occurs with acts\_as\_paranoid, though it complains  
about one of the “active” gems rather than the rails gem itself.

Today I freshened my gems and installed 1.2.5.7919. I repeated the  
steps above and got an equivalent error:  
… can’t activate rails (= 1.2.5), already activated  
rails-1.2.5.7919]

I’d already tried freezing rails in various ways and I’ve messed with  
RAILS\_GEM\_VERSION, both without success.

Today I tried gem cleanup rails, which left me with just 1.2.5.7919  
instead of the six or seven versions I had previously. I created a new  
project etc., as above, and when I ran rake test\plugins this time it  
failed slightly differently:

`gem_original_require': no such file to load -- breakpoint (MissingSourceFile) from [...]/ruby/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems/ custom_require.rb:27:in `require’

Can anyone offer any help with this?

Thanks,

Sven

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![sven](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/e47c2d/32.png) [@sven](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/sven)\
**Post date:** [October 20, 2007, 2:12pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/cant-activate-rails-already-activated-rails-and-no-such-file-to-load-breakpoint/117668/2 "2007-10-20T14:12:56Z")

</div>

The same issue occurs with the tests for attachment\_fu and the 2.0  
preview release. It works fine with 1.2.5. I don’t know whether the  
problem is rubygems not distinguishing between, say, 1.2.5 ans  
1.2.5.7919, or whether there’s a problem with the plugins’  
dependencies. Am I really the only person trying test:plugins against  
the 2.0 preview release?

-Sven

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![sven](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/e47c2d/32.png) [@sven](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/sven)\
**Post date:** [October 21, 2007, 8:40am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/cant-activate-rails-already-activated-rails-and-no-such-file-to-load-breakpoint/117668/3 "2007-10-21T08:40:35Z")

</div>

Sven, I just ran into the same issue. For me, it was an rmagick  
problem caused by an upgrade to my OS. I had to uninstall the gem and  
reinstall it and then everything worked fine. That may not help you  
specifically, but I thought it was worth noting that it didn’t have  
anything to do with a plugin for me.