# Error in gem install mysql

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/error-in-gem-install-mysql/132629>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [March 22, 2008, 7:12am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/error-in-gem-install-mysql/132629 "2008-03-22T07:12:32Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![mokkai](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/c2a13f/32.png) [@mokkai](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/mokkai)\
**Post date:** [March 22, 2008, 7:12am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/error-in-gem-install-mysql/132629/1 "2008-03-22T07:12:32Z")

</div>

fax@ubuntu7.04:~/Desktop/Rails\_2/blog$ sudo gem install mysql  
Password:  
Updating metadata for 434 gems from [http://gems.rubyforge.org](http://gems.rubyforge.org)  
…  
complete  
Building native extensions. This could take a while…  
ERROR: Error installing mysql:  
ERROR: Failed to build gem native extension.

/usr/bin/ruby1.8 extconf.rb install mysql  
checking for mysql\_query() in -lmysqlclient… no  
checking for main() in -lm… yes  
checking for mysql\_query() in -lmysqlclient… no  
checking for main() in -lz… yes  
checking for mysql\_query() in -lmysqlclient… no  
checking for main() in -lsocket… no  
checking for mysql\_query() in -lmysqlclient… no  
checking for main() in -lnsl… yes  
checking for mysql\_query() in -lmysqlclient… no  
\*\*\* extconf.rb failed \*\*\*  
Could not create Makefile due to some reason, probably lack of  
necessary libraries and/or headers. Check the mkmf.log file for more  
details. You may need configuration options.

Provided configuration options:  
–with-opt-dir  
–without-opt-dir  
–with-opt-include  
–without-opt-include=${opt-dir}/include  
–with-opt-lib  
–without-opt-lib=${opt-dir}/lib  
–with-make-prog  
–without-make-prog  
–srcdir=.  
–curdir  
–ruby=/usr/bin/ruby1.8  
–with-mysql-config  
–without-mysql-config  
–with-mysql-dir  
–without-mysql-dir  
–with-mysql-include  
–without-mysql-include=${mysql-dir}/include  
–with-mysql-lib  
–without-mysql-lib=${mysql-dir}/lib  
–with-mysqlclientlib  
–without-mysqlclientlib  
–with-mlib  
–without-mlib  
–with-mysqlclientlib  
–without-mysqlclientlib  
–with-zlib  
–without-zlib  
–with-mysqlclientlib  
–without-mysqlclientlib  
–with-socketlib  
–without-socketlib  
–with-mysqlclientlib  
–without-mysqlclientlib  
–with-nsllib  
–without-nsllib  
–with-mysqlclientlib  
–without-mysqlclientlib

Gem files will remain installed in /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/mysql-2.7  
for inspection.  
Results logged to /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/mysql-2.7/gem\_make.out  
fax@ubuntu7.04:~/Desktop/Rails\_2/blog$ sudo gem install mysql

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![mokkai](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/c2a13f/32.png) [@mokkai](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/mokkai)\
**Post date:** [March 22, 2008, 8:35pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/error-in-gem-install-mysql/132629/2 "2008-03-22T20:35:14Z")

</div>

I usually install mine  
gem install mysql --with-mysql-config=/a/b/whatever/mysqlconfig  
maybe ?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![mokkai](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/c2a13f/32.png) [@mokkai](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/mokkai)\
**Post date:** [March 23, 2008, 5:55am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/error-in-gem-install-mysql/132629/3 "2008-03-23T05:55:56Z")

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I always load MySQL with a sudo apt-get install mysql-server  
mysql-client

Has worked without issue on the last 5 or 6 Ubuntu setups… (thrashing  
around in vmWare, so I’ve done 7.04 about 3 times, and 7.10 twice…)

never used the gem method.