# Gem Error

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/gem-error/143504>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [July 19, 2008, 4:51pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/gem-error/143504 "2008-07-19T16:51:39Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![paradise](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/8e7dd6/32.png) [@paradise](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/paradise)\
**Post date:** [July 19, 2008, 4:51pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/gem-error/143504/1 "2008-07-19T16:51:39Z")

</div>

I have been struggling with this problem for a couple days now and any  
help is greatly appreciated. I get an error when I try and update my  
gems and now my existing plugins aren’t even working. I am running  
windows with instantrails 2.0, rails 2.1, and gems 1.2:

ERROR: While executing gem … (Gem::Installer::ExtensionBuildError)  
ERROR: Failed to build gem native extension.

C:/InstantRails-2.0-win/ruby/bin/ruby.exe extconf.rb update

I am somewhat new to rails, does anyone know what this means?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![paradise](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/8e7dd6/32.png) [@paradise](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/paradise)\
**Post date:** [July 19, 2008, 7:50pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/gem-error/143504/2 "2008-07-19T19:50:49Z")

</div>

On 19 Jul 2008, at 15:51, Dave L. wrote:

> 

It means it couldn’t compile the extension a gem contained. If you  
don’t have a compiler ruby can use then you need to pick the mswin  
version of gems when one is available.

Fred

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![paradise](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/8e7dd6/32.png) [@paradise](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/paradise)\
**Post date:** [July 19, 2008, 10:35pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/gem-error/143504/3 "2008-07-19T22:35:14Z")

</div>

This all happened when I tried to install the will\_paginate as a gem.  
Then I uninstalled it but still get this error. Do you have any idea  
if there is something more I can remove to correct this?

On Jul 19, 10:50 am, Frederick C. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid)