# Installing rubygems

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/installing-rubygems/131571>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [March 11, 2008, 2:07pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/installing-rubygems/131571 "2008-03-11T14:07:52Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![learningruby](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/6bbea6/32.png) [@learningruby](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/learningruby)\
**Post date:** [March 11, 2008, 2:07pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/installing-rubygems/131571/1 "2008-03-11T14:07:52Z")

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Hi all,  
I have an ubuntu machine on which I installed  
ruby/rubygems/rails etc using synaptic pkg mngr. Today I tried a local  
installation of ruby in my “/home/myruby” dir by compiling ruby source  
code using gc and I was successful in doing so. Now how do I install  
rubygems and other gems into my new ruby installation dir? any help  
greatly appreciated…

thanks & regards,  
Venkat

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![learningruby](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/6bbea6/32.png) [@learningruby](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/learningruby)\
**Post date:** [March 11, 2008, 5:48pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/installing-rubygems/131571/2 "2008-03-11T17:48:51Z")

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ruby rails wrote:

> 

I strongly advise _against_ installing rails or rubygems via synaptic.  
The last several times I tried the synaptic Rails package made several  
very unconventional and highly unnecessary modifications to the Rails  
install (such as swapping out the /usr/bin/rails executable with a  
script that sets up new rails projects unconventionally (such as  
creating a bunch of unnecessary symbolic links in the /vendor/rails  
directory (which really f\*\*ks things up when you try to check your  
projects into subversion, and then take an update… or share it with  
another developer on a Mac, or with Rails installed in a different local  
path than you do))). There’s more, but that should be enough to give you  
the picture.

At this point completely uninstall rubygems and rails via synaptic,  
check that everything has been properly removed, then follow the  
instructions to install rubygems and rails on [rubyonrails.org/down](http://rubyonrails.org/down).

Normally, I tell other Ubuntu users to always, always, always install  
new software via synaptic. Rails however is the one enormous exception.

–  
[http://www.5valleys.com/](http://www.5valleys.com/)  
[http://www.workingwithrails.com/person/8078](http://www.workingwithrails.com/person/8078)