# Installing Ruby on Rails on Leopard **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [December 24, 2007, 9:10am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/installing-ruby-on-rails-on-leopard/124065 "2007-12-24T09:10:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![casper\_the\_ghost](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/58956e/32.png) [@casper\_the\_ghost](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/casper_the_ghost)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2007, 9:10am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/installing-ruby-on-rails-on-leopard/124065/1 "2007-12-24T09:10:57Z")
I am completely new to Ruby on Rails, and programming in general, and so I have what imagine are two pretty idiotic questions: 1. I am trying to install all of the components I need to run RoR on OS X Leopard (following instructions at [Andrew Nesbitt | Andrew is a software developer, based in Somerset, UK. He spends most of his days programming in Ruby, contributing to open source projects and organising local developer user groups.](http://teabass.com/super-simple-ruby-on-rails-install-with-macports-for-leopard/#comment-1993)). I got up to the part where I type “sudo gem update” into Terminal, and all was well, until I got this error: * * * Attempting remote update of rubynode Building native extensions. This could take a while… ERROR: While executing gem … (Gem::Installer::ExtensionBuildError) ERROR: Failed to build gem native extension. # ruby extconf.rb update ==================== ERROR ===================== Please set RUBY\_SOURCE\_DIR to the source path of ruby 1.8.6 (2007-09-23)! * * * Any thoughts on how to get past this? 1. Before I hit the above snag, I accidentally selected “fastthread 1.0.1 (mswin32)” instead of “fastthread 1.0.1 (ruby)”, during the gem update. How can I now install the correct version of fastthread? (not even sure what that is, but it seems important). Many thanks. ---
**Author:** ![casper\_the\_ghost](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/58956e/32.png) [@casper\_the\_ghost](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/casper_the_ghost)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2007, 9:27am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/installing-ruby-on-rails-on-leopard/124065/2 "2007-12-24T09:27:58Z")
On Dec 24, 2007 12:10 AM, David T [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > I got up to the part where I type “sudo gem update” into Terminal, and > all was well, until I got this error: Run the following on a terminal: gem env to see current gem version. The latest version is 1.0.1. You have to upgrade the Ruby Gems before upgrading the gems on your machine. So, run: sudo gem update --system. If it hangs then try: sudo gem install rubygems-update sudo update\_rubygems > Any thoughts on how to get past this? > > 1. Before I hit the above snag, I accidentally selected “fastthread > 1.0.1 (mswin32)” instead of “fastthread 1.0.1 (ruby)”, during the gem > update. How can I now install the correct version of fastthread? (not > even sure what that is, but it seems important). Just do sudo gem uninstall fastthread and then do sudo gem install fastthread. If I were you, I would follow Hivelogic article on installing the Rails stack. – [http://www.rubyplus.org/](http://www.rubyplus.org/) Free Ruby Screencasts ---
**Author:** ![casper\_the\_ghost](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/58956e/32.png) [@casper\_the\_ghost](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/casper_the_ghost)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2007, 4:34am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/installing-ruby-on-rails-on-leopard/124065/3 "2007-12-25T04:34:29Z")
Thanks! Now a follow-up question: I ran: sudo gem update --system It updated me to 1.0.1. Do I now have to reinstall gems like capistrano and rails? Unfortunately the Hivelogic article only applies to Tiger – it hasn’t been updated yet for Leopard. ---
**Author:** ![casper\_the\_ghost](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/58956e/32.png) [@casper\_the\_ghost](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/casper_the_ghost)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2007, 4:47am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/installing-ruby-on-rails-on-leopard/124065/4 "2007-12-25T04:47:23Z")
Figured it out: gem list --local Shows me the list of gems installed. ---
**Author:** ![casper\_the\_ghost](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/58956e/32.png) [@casper\_the\_ghost](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/casper_the_ghost)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2007, 5:04am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/installing-ruby-on-rails-on-leopard/124065/5 "2007-12-25T05:04:20Z")
Oy vey, to be a newbie. I tried running a test app, using the following procedure, and got the following error. sudo mkdir -p /usr/local/src sudo chgrp admin /usr/local/src sudo chmod -R 775 /usr/local/src cd /usr/local/src rails testapp cd testapp script/server Missing the Rails 2.0.2 gem. Please `gem install -v=2.0.2 rails`, update your RAILS\_GEM\_VERSION setting in config/environment.rb for the Rails version you do have installed, or comment out RAILS\_GEM\_VERSION to use the latest version installed. The thing is, I’m pretty sure I do have Rails 2.0.2. installed, because when I type rails -v I get this: Rails 2.0.2 If I comment out RAILS\_GEM\_VERSION, I get the same error, just without “2.0.2.” ---
**Author:** ![casper\_the\_ghost](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/58956e/32.png) [@casper\_the\_ghost](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/casper_the_ghost)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2007, 6:26am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/installing-ruby-on-rails-on-leopard/124065/6 "2007-12-25T06:26:41Z")
Probably not a great idea to create your app under /usr/local. I would recommend /var/www or ~/rails or something like that. You’ll find it much easier to work with and you won’t constantly be battling the system’s permissions settings. ---
**Author:** ![casper\_the\_ghost](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/58956e/32.png) [@casper\_the\_ghost](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/casper_the_ghost)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2007, 6:35am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/installing-ruby-on-rails-on-leopard/124065/7 "2007-12-25T06:35:27Z")
Thanks for the tip. I ultimately resolved the problems above by getting rid of my macport- installed versions, and using the ruby and rails included with Leopard. ---
**Author:** ![casper\_the\_ghost](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/58956e/32.png) [@casper\_the\_ghost](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/casper_the_ghost)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2007, 5:52am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/installing-ruby-on-rails-on-leopard/124065/8 "2007-12-26T05:52:25Z")
You can upgrade the gems, sudo gem update. If there is later versions available, u will get the latest version. Then u can do sudo gem cleanup to uninstall the older versions Sent from my iPhone ---
**Author:** ![casper\_the\_ghost](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/58956e/32.png) [@casper\_the\_ghost](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/casper_the_ghost)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2007, 5:51am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/installing-ruby-on-rails-on-leopard/124065/9 "2007-12-26T05:51:50Z")
Check the rails version in environment.rb file Sent from my iPhone ---
**Author:** ![casper\_the\_ghost](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/58956e/32.png) [@casper\_the\_ghost](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/casper_the_ghost)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2007, 6:56am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/installing-ruby-on-rails-on-leopard/124065/10 "2007-12-28T06:56:42Z")
David, Here is a page you probably want to bookmark for the latest on Ruby on Rails on Mac OS X: [http://ruby.macosforge.org/](http://ruby.macosforge.org/) And especially take a look at the FAQ here: [http://trac.macosforge.org/projects/ruby/wiki/FAQ](http://trac.macosforge.org/projects/ruby/wiki/FAQ) Sorry I didn’t see this sooner. It could have saved you a lot of headaches. ---
**Author:** ![casper\_the\_ghost](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/58956e/32.png) [@casper\_the\_ghost](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/casper_the_ghost)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2007, 7:08am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/installing-ruby-on-rails-on-leopard/124065/11 "2007-12-28T07:08:58Z")
David, Oh also take a closer look at the gem command. There are some pretty cool things you can do with it like: gem outdated =\> will list all the local installed gems that are have new versions available Then it’s just a matter of running: sudo gem install some\_gem The versions of RubyGems \> 0.9.5 even take care of the dependencies for you by default. Another quick tip is that when Rails gets updated you should probably install that gem first then a lot of the dependencies of Rails with also get installed and should shorten the list of gems listed with ‘gem outdated’ Just some thoughts. Good luck. P.S. I’ve been impressed with the support of Rails from Apple so far. There was a problem some had before RubyGems 0.9.5+ was released, but now that problem no longer exists. There shouldn’t be any reason not to use the Apple installed gems and Ruby at this point.