# Can't get rails working **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [April 22, 2006, 9:46pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/cant-get-rails-working/58540 "2006-04-22T21:46:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![markbates](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@markbates](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/markbates)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2006, 9:46pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/cant-get-rails-working/58540/1 "2006-04-22T21:46:58Z")
I am trying to set up rails and am having problems. I have googled everything I could think of, but have not found my problem. Here are my specs. Gentoo Linux 2006.0 Apache 2.2 Ruby 1.8.4 Gems 1.8 Rails 1.1.2 mod\_fcgid 1.08 When I try to access my test rails app through the webserver, I get the following error in the error.log (after seeing a html 500 error on the page). [Fri Apr 14 19:54:48 2006] [notice] mod\_fcgid: server /var/www/rails/cookbook/public/dispatch.fcgi(20039) started /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activesupport-1.3.1/lib/active\_support/dependencies.rb:123:in `const_missing': uninitialized constant RailsFCGIHandler (NameError) from /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activesupport-1.3.1/lib/active_support/dependencies.rb:131:in`const\_missing’ from /var/www/rails/cookbook/public/dispatch.fcgi:25 I have seen suggestions to run ‘ruby dispatch.fcgi’ from the command line, but I get the same error. Any suggestions? ps. I installed everything the WiKi said. Apache mod\_fcgid fcgi gems ruby rails gem fcgi gem ---
**Author:** ![markbates](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@markbates](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/markbates)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2006, 10:17pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/cant-get-rails-working/58540/2 "2006-04-22T22:17:05Z")
If you are just starting out developing with rails I would suggest use webrick instead of apache, then move to apache when your application is ready to be hosted for production. That way you don’t have to mess with configuring apache to play nice until you are already familiar with rails itself. To run webrick just do: ruby script/server from your app’s root then you should be able to get to it at [http://localhost:3000/](http://localhost:3000/) Rob ---
**Author:** ![markbates](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@markbates](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/markbates)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2006, 5:58pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/cant-get-rails-working/58540/3 "2006-04-23T17:58:59Z")
Rob M. wrote: > If you are just starting out developing with rails I would suggest use > webrick instead of apache, then move to apache when your application is > ready to be hosted for production. That way you don’t have to mess with > configuring apache to play nice until you are already familiar with > rails > itself. To run webrick just do: ruby script/server from your app’s root > then you should be able to get to it at [http://localhost:3000/](http://localhost:3000/) > > Rob Thanks for your advice, but we are looking at using Rails for a commercial app we are developing. If I can’t get it to work, there is no point in using it. ---
**Author:** ![markbates](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@markbates](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/markbates)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2006, 8:19pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/cant-get-rails-working/58540/4 "2006-04-23T20:19:04Z")
Yeah, but you are obviously not familiar with rails so that is why I’m saying during development use webrick then move to apache when you are ready to host. That way when you get these kinds of errors by then you should know at least where to start looking for the solution. my $0.02 Rob ---
**Author:** ![markbates](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@markbates](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/markbates)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2006, 1:45pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/cant-get-rails-working/58540/5 "2006-04-24T13:45:54Z")
Rob M. wrote: > Yeah, but you are obviously not familiar with rails so that is why I’m > saying during development use webrick then move to apache when you are > ready > to host. That way when you get these kinds of errors by then you should > know at least where to start looking for the solution. > > my $0.02 > > Rob What happens when I spend 4 months learning Rails and then I still can’t get it set up and still get non-answers. Yes it is obvious that I am not yet familiar with Rails and I appreciate your point of view, but I don’t want to waste time I can’t afford to waste if I can’t get it set up at all. ---
**Author:** ![markbates](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@markbates](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/markbates)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2006, 1:49pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/cant-get-rails-working/58540/6 "2006-04-24T13:49:56Z")
Matt R. wrote: > I agree completely. Work with webrick in development, then when you > start > getting errors you know what to do and where to look. > > But sadly, I don’t know enough about Apache (I don’t deal with hosting > at > the moment) so I can’t help with your problem. > > Good luck 🙂 It is not a programming error. I just followed the tutorial for setting up cookbook. I only went to the first step of setting up the the recipes table in MySQL and adding the scaffold to the controller. It works under WebRick, but it throws that error when trying to run it under Apache. ---
**Author:** ![markbates](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@markbates](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/markbates)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2006, 11:55pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/cant-get-rails-working/58540/7 "2006-04-23T23:55:52Z")
I agree completely. Work with webrick in development, then when you start getting errors you know what to do and where to look. But sadly, I don’t know enough about Apache (I don’t deal with hosting at the moment) so I can’t help with your problem. Good luck 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![markbates](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@markbates](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/markbates)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2006, 2:57pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/cant-get-rails-working/58540/8 "2006-04-24T14:57:23Z")
There is nothing special about configuring Apache with FCGI for a Rails app. FastCGI is a bit of a hassle but no chance is involved. It’s just a matter of getting some libraries and a module installed and putting the right six or seven lines in your configs. For me the most time-consuming part was finding a version of Apache (out of 1.3, 2.0, 2.1 and 2.2) for which one of the three or so available FastCGI modules compiled out of the box. In my case, under FreeBSD, that was a post-January 2006 rev of Apache 2.0.x and mod\_fastcgi. Please remember that when you see a lot of messages on this list from people having problems, you’re seeing the ones having problems and that a majority of these people come in knowing little or nothing about configuring Apache so as they try to copy and paste from other people’s HOWTOs, they don’t understand what they’re pasting in and can’t grasp what they need to change for their own circumstances. You’re not seeing the thousands of people who spent an hour downloading things, fiddled with configs for a bit and got it all working before lunch. When you understand that your app’s root is in public/ and how and when dispatch.fcgi gets called, the rest will just be a matter of installig the module and setting some paths. Nobody who understands Apache config files, the layout of their machine’s filesystem, how to install apps from packages and tarballs on their OS, and the importance of file permissions is going to fail to get Rails running properly on Apache. It may take a half-hour or it may take most of a day, but it installs and works fine and there’s nothing remotely insurmountable, magical or chancy about it. Once you do get it going, you slap your forehead, understand what you were doing wrong, and getting your second, third and fourth Rails apps running on Apache takes five minutes. It can just be a steep learning curve for people used to the one package and two lines of configuration needed to get PHP running. And in any event, if Apache configs are too scary, that’s why Lighttpd was invented. Start developing, don’t think about Apache too much, and when you’re ready to start experimenting with deployment to production, study the config file examples for Rails on Apache and try to understand what they’re doing. _Then_ start downloading and installing things. Mark Bernard wrote: > Rob M. wrote: > > > Yeah, but you are obviously not familiar with rails so that is why I’m > > saying during development use webrick then move to apache when you are > > ready > > to host. That way when you get these kinds of errors by then you should > > know at least where to start looking for the solution. > > > > my $0.02 > > > > Rob > > What happens when I spend 4 months learning Rails and then I still can’t > get it set up and still get non-answers. Yes it is obvious that I am > not yet familiar with Rails and I appreciate your point of view, but I > don’t want to waste time I can’t afford to waste if I can’t get it set > up at all.