# Mongrel throws error when running as nobody

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/mongrel-throws-error-when-running-as-nobody/129574>\
**Category:** Deployment\
**Created:** [February 19, 2008, 8:00pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/mongrel-throws-error-when-running-as-nobody/129574 "2008-02-19T20:00:53Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![armstheykill](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/a587f6/32.png) [@armstheykill](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/armstheykill)\
**Post date:** [February 19, 2008, 8:00pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/mongrel-throws-error-when-running-as-nobody/129574/1 "2008-02-19T20:00:53Z")

</div>

Hi all,

My mongrel cluster runs perfectly if I allow it to run as root, but  
whenever I try to change things to nobody/nobody my mongrels refuse to  
start and the following shows up in the mongrel logs…

\*\* Starting Mongrel listening at 127.0.0.1:9000  
\*\* Initiating groups for “nobody”:“nobody”.  
\*\* Changing group to “nobody”.  
\*\* Changing user to “nobody”.  
\*\* Starting Rails with development environment…  
/usr/local/lib/ruby/site\_ruby/1.8/rubygems/custom\_require.rb:27:in  
`gem_original_require': no such file to load -- /usr/local/lib/ruby/ gems/1.8/gems/rails-1.2.6/lib/initializer (LoadError) from /usr/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems/ custom_require.rb:27:in`require’  
from /opt/csw/apache2/share/htdocs/apps/boffable\_development/  
trunk/config/boot.rb:30  
from /usr/local/lib/ruby/site\_ruby/1.8/rubygems/  
custom\_require.rb:27:in `gem_original_require' from /usr/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems/ custom_require.rb:27:in`require’  
from /opt/csw/apache2/share/htdocs/apps/boffable\_development/  
trunk/config/environment.rb:12  
from /usr/local/lib/ruby/site\_ruby/1.8/rubygems/  
custom\_require.rb:27:in `gem_original_require' from /usr/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems/ custom_require.rb:27:in`require’  
from /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/mongrel-1.1.3/bin/…/  
lib/mongrel/rails.rb:147:in `rails' ... 8 levels... from /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/mongrel-1.1.3/bin/../ lib/mongrel/command.rb:212:in`run’  
from /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/mongrel-1.1.3/bin/  
mongrel\_rails:281  
from /usr/local/bin/mongrel\_rails:19:in `load’  
from /usr/local/bin/mongrel\_rails:19

My mongrel-cluster.yml looks like this:

user: nobody  
cwd: /opt/csw/apache2/share/htdocs/apps/trunk  
port: “9000”  
environment: development  
group: nobody  
address: 127.0.0.1  
servers: 3

Things work perfectly if I comment out the user and group lines.

Thanks for any ideas.