# Difficulty installing ruby gem termios

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/difficulty-installing-ruby-gem-termios/73360>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [October 24, 2006, 3:15am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/difficulty-installing-ruby-gem-termios/73360 "2006-10-24T03:15:47Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![waddilove](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/w/b5ac83/32.png) [@waddilove](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/waddilove)\
**Post date:** [October 24, 2006, 3:15am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/difficulty-installing-ruby-gem-termios/73360/1 "2006-10-24T03:15:47Z")

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Hello,  
I’ve just put a fresh install of kubuntu 6.06.1i on my computer. I’m  
trying to install the ruby gem termios-0.9.4, with gem 0.9.0 and ruby  
1.8.4. I’ve used the following commands to no avail.  
sudo gem install termios --include-dependencies – --build-flags  
–with-opt-dir=/usr  
sudo gem install termios --include-dependencies

I receive the same error in my mkmf.log file every time. Here’s the my  
mkmf.log file from one run:  
have\_header: checking for termios.h… -------------------- no

“gcc -E -I. -I/usr/lib/ruby/1.8/i486-linux -I/usr/include -Wall -g -O2  
-fPIC conftest.c -o conftest.i”  
checked program was:  
/\* begin _/  
 #include \<termios.h\>  
/_ end \*/

* * *

I’ve used adept (the graphical package manager for kde) to install  
libtermios-ruby, libtermios-ruby1.8, ruby1.8, ruby1.8-dev, and  
libc6-dev. My mkmf.log shows that I’m missing the termios.h file. I  
can see that I have a termios.h file located in /usr/include though,  
from the results above, I am assuming it is not the correct one. I’ve  
searched google for termios.h, the package contents for ubuntu for  
termios.h  
([Ubuntu – Error](http://packages.ubuntu.com/cgi-bin/search_contents.pl?word=termios.h&searchmode=searchword&case=insensitive&version=dapper&arch=i386&page=1&number=50))  
and I have no clue what to try next.

Any ideas? Am I missing something simple here?  
Thanks in advance,  
Jonathan

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**Author:** ![waddilove](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/w/b5ac83/32.png) [@waddilove](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/waddilove)\
**Post date:** [October 24, 2006, 3:21am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/difficulty-installing-ruby-gem-termios/73360/2 "2006-10-24T03:21:47Z")

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For future reference, this is the error one gets when gcc is not  
installed. _blush_

On Oct 23, 9:10 pm, “Jonathan W.” [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![waddilove](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/w/b5ac83/32.png) [@waddilove](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/waddilove)\
**Post date:** [October 24, 2006, 3:26pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/difficulty-installing-ruby-gem-termios/73360/3 "2006-10-24T15:26:33Z")

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On Mon, 23 Oct 2006 18:16:29 -0700, Jonathan W. wrote:

> For future reference, this is the error one gets when gcc is not  
> installed. _blush_

The proper solution to this problem would thus be to install the package  
“build-essential” which pulls in GCC as well as other important tools  
like  
make and the linker.

–Ken B.