# Mongrel won't start ... mongrel\_rails (MissingSourceFile)

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/mongrel-wont-start-mongrel-rails-missingsourcefile/140318>\
**Category:** Mongrel\
**Created:** [June 12, 2008, 10:37pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/mongrel-wont-start-mongrel-rails-missingsourcefile/140318 "2008-06-12T22:37:35Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![david](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@david](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/david)\
**Post date:** [June 12, 2008, 10:37pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/mongrel-wont-start-mongrel-rails-missingsourcefile/140318/1 "2008-06-12T22:37:35Z")

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Hi All,

I’m a newbie and I’m soooo confused at the moment!

Here’s my setup:

1. I’ve installed Ruby 1.8 on an Ubuntu 7.10 platform. I used apt to  
install that.

2. I downloaded rubygems\_1.1.1 and installed that (tar -xzf, then ruby  
setup.rb)

3. I installed rails (gem install rails --include-dependencies)

4. I installed mongrel (gem install mongrel --include-dependencies)

5. I created a test dir (cd; rails mytest)

6. I tried to start mongrel (cd mytest; ruby script/server)

I get a load error:

=\> Booting Mongrel (use ‘script/server webrick’ to force WEBrick)  
=\> Rails 2.1.0 application starting on [http://0.0.0.0:3000](http://0.0.0.0:3000)  
=\> Call with -d to detach  
=\> Ctrl-C to shutdown server  
Exiting  
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activesupport-2.1.0/lib/active\_support/dependencies.rb:502:in  
`load’: no such file to load – mongrel\_rails (MissingSourceFile)

NOTE: I can start mongrel using /usr/bin/mongrel\_rails and I get no  
errors.

I put a puts $: statement at the end of config/boot.rb and indeed, the  
path to the mongrel gem is missing. What’s up? Where/how do I fix  
this?

Thanks in advance.

– David

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![david](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@david](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/david)\
**Post date:** [June 14, 2008, 12:06am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/mongrel-wont-start-mongrel-rails-missingsourcefile/140318/2 "2008-06-14T00:06:58Z")

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Problem solved…

I had, at some previous time, loaded mongrel using apt. I uninstalled  
it (using apt) but the /usr/local/lib/site\_ruby mongrel files were still  
there.

The require statement picked up the site\_ruby version instead of the  
/usr/lib/ruby/gems version. As soon as I renamed the files in  
/usr/local/lib/site\_ruby, things started working.

– DB

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![david](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@david](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/david)\
**Post date:** [June 13, 2008, 11:43am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/mongrel-wont-start-mongrel-rails-missingsourcefile/140318/3 "2008-06-13T11:43:47Z")

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On Thu, 12 Jun 2008 22:37:35 +0200  
David B. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:

> =\> Booting Mongrel (use ‘script/server webrick’ to force WEBrick)  
> =\> Rails 2.1.0 application starting on [http://0.0.0.0:3000](http://0.0.0.0:3000)  
> =\> Call with -d to detach  
> =\> Ctrl-C to shutdown server  
> Exiting  
> /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activesupport-2.1.0/lib/active\_support/dependencies.rb:502:in  
> `load’: no such file to load – mongrel\_rails (MissingSourceFile)

Hmm, no idea since I don’t use Debian, but did you possibly install it  
wrong or maybe install via ruby gems rather than apt-get? I’m not  
sure, but if it’s debian they probably mess with the package layout so  
you kind of are stuck using their package manager.

–  
Zed A. Shaw

- Hate: [http://savingtheinternetwithhate.com/](http://savingtheinternetwithhate.com/)
- Good: [http://www.zedshaw.com/](http://www.zedshaw.com/)
- Evil: [http://yearofevil.com/](http://yearofevil.com/)