# Captcha Trouble **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [February 20, 2010, 4:41pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/captcha-trouble/183805 "2010-02-20T16:41:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![karthikeyan](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/k/898d66/32.png) [@karthikeyan](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/karthikeyan)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2010, 4:41pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/captcha-trouble/183805/1 "2010-02-20T16:41:12Z")
Hello Rails, I have a problem. I would like to use captcha in one of my project. When I did try to install, this is what I got $ sudo gem install captcha Building native extensions. This could take a while… ERROR: Error installing captcha: ERROR: Failed to build gem native extension. /usr/bin/ruby1.8 extconf.rb extconf.rb:1:in `require’: no such file to load – mkmf (LoadError) from extconf.rb:1 Gem files will remain installed in /var/lib/gems/1.8/gems/ rmagick-2.12.2 for inspection. Results logged to /var/lib/gems/1.8/gems/rmagick-2.12.2/ext/RMagick/ gem\_make.out Could any one help me out on this? ---
**Author:** ![karthikeyan](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/k/898d66/32.png) [@karthikeyan](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/karthikeyan)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2010, 4:47pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/captcha-trouble/183805/2 "2010-02-20T16:47:03Z")
Looks like you are missing the tools to build the extensions. If you are on a Debain based distro, try sudo apt-get install build-essential If that doesn’t work, search for guides on installing rails on Debian systems. On Sat, Feb 20, 2010 at 7:39 AM, Karthikeyan [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > /usr/bin/ruby1.8 extconf.rb > > – > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google G. “Ruby on Rails: Talk” group. > To post to this group, send email to removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid. > For more options, visit this group at [http://groups.google.com/group/rubyonrails-talk?hl=en](http://groups.google.com/group/rubyonrails-talk?hl=en). # – Curtis C. removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid home:[http://curtiscooley.com](http://curtiscooley.com) blog:[http://ponderingobjectorienteddesign.blogspot.com](http://ponderingobjectorienteddesign.blogspot.com) Leadership is a potent combination of strategy and character. But if you must be without one, be without the strategy. – H. Norman Schwarzkopf ---
**Author:** ![karthikeyan](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/k/898d66/32.png) [@karthikeyan](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/karthikeyan)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2010, 8:43pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/captcha-trouble/183805/3 "2010-02-20T20:43:31Z")
On Sat, Feb 20, 2010 at 8:50 AM, Karthikeyan [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > This is looking like rocket science to me. Sorry, can’t help much there. I’m still learning Rails and find that building my own instead of using plugins helps me grok things better. Like rolling my own authentication and authorization. For example, instead of captchas for user validation, I use a simple email challenge. Of course that meant I had to learn ActionMailer, but that’s built in. # – Curtis C. removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid home:[http://curtiscooley.com](http://curtiscooley.com) blog:[http://ponderingobjectorienteddesign.blogspot.com](http://ponderingobjectorienteddesign.blogspot.com) Leadership is a potent combination of strategy and character. But if you must be without one, be without the strategy. – H. Norman Schwarzkopf ---
**Author:** ![karthikeyan](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/k/898d66/32.png) [@karthikeyan](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/karthikeyan)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2010, 6:10pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/captcha-trouble/183805/4 "2010-02-20T18:10:10Z")
Got captcha installed. But when I tried ( refering [http://rdoc.info/projects/zendesk/captcha](http://rdoc.info/projects/zendesk/captcha) ) $rake captcha:generate COUNT=250 It gave the following output rake aborted! Don’t know how to build task ‘captcha:generate’ This is looking like rocket science to me. ---
**Author:** ![karthikeyan](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/k/898d66/32.png) [@karthikeyan](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/karthikeyan)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2010, 3:03am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/captcha-trouble/183805/5 "2010-02-21T03:03:23Z")
Has any one else run into the following problem? ---
**Author:** ![karthikeyan](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/k/898d66/32.png) [@karthikeyan](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/karthikeyan)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2010, 6:54am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/captcha-trouble/183805/6 "2010-02-21T06:54:35Z")
use captcha service: [http://captchator.com/](http://captchator.com/) 2010/2/21 Karthikeyan [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) > > email challenge. Of course that meant I had to learn ActionMailer, but > > – H. Norman Schwarzkopf – tommy xiao E-mail: xiaods(AT)[gmail.com](http://gmail.com) ---
**Author:** ![karthikeyan](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/k/898d66/32.png) [@karthikeyan](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/karthikeyan)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2010, 11:12am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/captcha-trouble/183805/7 "2010-02-21T11:12:08Z")
Thanks a lot! Thanks to all who have taken pains to answer this question. I found perfect solution in [http://www.codeandcoffee.com/2007/06/implementing-a-captcha-with-ruby-on-rails-in-10-minutes-or-less/](http://www.codeandcoffee.com/2007/06/implementing-a-captcha-with-ruby-on-rails-in-10-minutes-or-less/) . I haven’t tested [catchcaptor.com](http://catchcaptor.com) , but it looks impressive. Hope this discussion will be helpful to those who are having trouble with captcha.