# Need help installing ruby and libraries

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/need-help-installing-ruby-and-libraries/186052>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [March 30, 2010, 10:32pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/need-help-installing-ruby-and-libraries/186052 "2010-03-30T22:32:14Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 9\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jasv](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/b19c9b/32.png) [@jasv](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jasv)\
**Post date:** [March 30, 2010, 10:32pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/need-help-installing-ruby-and-libraries/186052/1 "2010-03-30T22:32:14Z")

</div>

Hello everybody…

I want to install Redmine Project Management in my PC (Windows XP),  
whose requirement is Ruby On Rails. So I need to install Ruby on my  
machine and it is at that point where I’ve got my first problems.

Other requirements of Redmine are RubyGems 1.3.1 and Rake 0.8.3.

Well, First, I have downloaded Ruby from  
[http://rubyforge.org/frs/?group\_id=167](http://rubyforge.org/frs/?group_id=167) and installed it. It worked well.

Then I have downloaded RubyGems from  
[http://rubyforge.org/frs/?group\_id=126](http://rubyforge.org/frs/?group_id=126) and installed it. It worked well  
too.

Now I have problems installing Rails. The page  
[http://rubyonrails.org/download](http://rubyonrails.org/download) says that to install rails I have to  
issue this command: gem install rails. After I issued that command, this  
error was shown:

ERROR: [http://rubygems.org/](http://rubygems.org/) does not appear to be a repository  
ERROR: could not find gem rails locally or in a repository

I thought I have to download Rails and place somewhere in my disk, so I  
downloaded rails-2.2.3.tar file but I don’t know how can I tell gem to  
load it and install it. By the way, that file was downloaded from  
[http://rubyforge.org/frs/?group\_id=307](http://rubyforge.org/frs/?group_id=307) and strangely although the file  
name should be rails-2.2.3.gem, it was downloaded as rails-2.2.3.tar.

Well… giving up with Rails installation, I continued with Rake. I have  
downloaded it and in this case I uncompressed the tar file and then  
execute the install.rb file with ruby command but I got an error  
concerning ftools.

ruby c:\rake\install.rb  
c:/rake/install.rb:3:in `require': no such file to load -- ftools (LoadError) from c:/rake/install.rb:3:in `’

Well… to finish fighting with this, I searched for ftools and I have  
found that it belongs to the ruby standard library. Well, I downloaded  
the file ruby-doc-stdlib-0.10.1.tar and uncompress it. Then, after  
changing to that directory, I issued the ruby command again, getting  
another error:

ruby install.rb  
install.rb:86: formal argument cannot be an instance variable …on to  
DIR/stdlib") { |@doc\_base| }  
… ^

Finally I gave up and decided to ask to the list.

Why is so difficult to install it? Can you please point me in the right  
direction?

Thanks a lot in advanced,  
Jaime

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jasv](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/b19c9b/32.png) [@jasv](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jasv)\
**Post date:** [March 31, 2010, 1:55am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/need-help-installing-ruby-and-libraries/186052/2 "2010-03-31T01:55:55Z")

</div>

On Mar 30, 10:31 pm, Jaime S. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:

> Hello everybody…
> 
> I want to install Redmine Project Management in my PC (Windows XP),  
> whose requirement is Ruby On Rails. So I need to install Ruby on my  
> machine and it is at that point where I’ve got my first problems.
> 
> Other requirements of Redmine are RubyGems 1.3.1 and Rake 0.8.3.
> 
> Well, First, I have downloaded Ruby from  
> [http://rubyforge.org/frs/?group\_id=167and](http://rubyforge.org/frs/?group_id=167and) installed it. It worked well.

Please specify which version did you download. Where you installed it,  
if you are a member of Administrators group under your computer.

The more details you provide, the better.

> Then I have downloaded RubyGems from  
> [http://rubyforge.org/frs/?group\_id=126and](http://rubyforge.org/frs/?group_id=126and) installed it. It worked well  
> too.

All the versions of Ruby you downloaded from previous link included  
RubyGems, which version did you manually downloaded? How you installed  
it?

> Now I have problems installing Rails. The page  
> [http://rubyonrails.org/downloadsays](http://rubyonrails.org/downloadsays) that to install rails I have to  
> issue this command: gem install rails. After I issued that command, this  
> error was shown:
> 
> ERROR: [http://rubygems.org/does](http://rubygems.org/does) not appear to be a repository  
> ERROR: could not find gem rails locally or in a repository

Please provide the output of “gem env” command so we know exactly  
which version of RubyGems and Ruby you’re dealing with.

> Well… giving up with Rails installation, I continued with Rake. I have  
> downloaded it and in this case I uncompressed the tar file and then  
> execute the install.rb file with ruby command but I got an error  
> concerning ftools.

Rake is distributed as a gem, should be able to install using  
RubyGems. Which version did you donwloaded? from where?

> Finally I gave up and decided to ask to the list.
> 
> Why is so difficult to install it? Can you please point me in the right  
> direction?

So far you’re the first one reporting these series of issues.

Please provide answers to my previous questions, more details from  
your side are required for anyone to be able to help you.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jasv](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/b19c9b/32.png) [@jasv](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jasv)\
**Post date:** [March 31, 2010, 3:26pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/need-help-installing-ruby-and-libraries/186052/3 "2010-03-31T15:26:27Z")

</div>

Hello…

This is the information you requested.

RubyGems Environment:

- RUBYGEMS VERSION: 1.3.6
- RUBY VERSION: 1.9.1 (2010-01-10 patchlevel 378) [i386-mingw32]
- INSTALLATION DIRECTORY: C:/Ruby19/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1
- RUBY EXECUTABLE: C:/Ruby19/bin/ruby.exe
- EXECUTABLE DIRECTORY: C:/Ruby19/bin
- RUBYGEMS PLATFORMS:
  - ruby
  - x86-mingw32

- GEM PATHS:
  - C:/Ruby19/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1
  - C:/Documents and Settings/jstuardo/.gem/ruby/1.9.1

- GEM CONFIGURATION:
  - :update\_sources =\> true
  - :verbose =\> true
  - :benchmark =\> false
  - :backtrace =\> false
  - :bulk\_threshold =\> 1000

- REMOTE SOURCES:
  - [http://rubygems.org/](http://rubygems.org/)

I am administrator of my computer.

Rake version is rake-0.8.7 downloaded from  
[http://rubyforge.org/frs/?group\_id=50](http://rubyforge.org/frs/?group_id=50)

What do you mean it is distributed as a gem? From the link above it is  
mentioned the file as rake-0.8.7.gem, but when I click on it, a .tar  
file is downloaded.

Finally, I tell you that I downloaded rails-2.2.3.gem from  
[http://rubyforge.org/frs/?group\_id=307](http://rubyforge.org/frs/?group_id=307) but the same as above, a .tar  
file was actually downloaded.

Thanks  
Jaime

-----Mensaje original-----  
De: Luis L. [[mailto:removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid)]  
Enviado el: martes, 30 de marzo de 2010 20:55  
Para: ruby-talk ML  
Asunto: Re: Need help installing ruby and libraries

On Mar 30, 10:31 pm, Jaime S. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:

> Hello everybody…
> 
> I want to install Redmine Project Management in my PC (Windows XP),  
> whose requirement is Ruby On Rails. So I need to install Ruby on my  
> machine and it is at that point where I’ve got my first problems.
> 
> Other requirements of Redmine are RubyGems 1.3.1 and Rake 0.8.3.
> 
> Well, First, I have downloaded Ruby from  
> [http://rubyforge.org/frs/?group\_id=167and](http://rubyforge.org/frs/?group_id=167and) installed it. It worked well.

Please specify which version did you download. Where you installed it,  
if you are a member of Administrators group under your computer.

The more details you provide, the better.

> Then I have downloaded RubyGems from  
> [http://rubyforge.org/frs/?group\_id=126and](http://rubyforge.org/frs/?group_id=126and) installed it. It worked well  
> too.

All the versions of Ruby you downloaded from previous link included  
RubyGems, which version did you manually downloaded? How you installed  
it?

> Now I have problems installing Rails. The page  
> [http://rubyonrails.org/downloadsays](http://rubyonrails.org/downloadsays) that to install rails I have to  
> issue this command: gem install rails. After I issued that command, this  
> error was shown:
> 
> ERROR: [http://rubygems.org/does](http://rubygems.org/does) not appear to be a repository  
> ERROR: could not find gem rails locally or in a repository

Please provide the output of “gem env” command so we know exactly  
which version of RubyGems and Ruby you’re dealing with.

> Well… giving up with Rails installation, I continued with Rake. I have  
> downloaded it and in this case I uncompressed the tar file and then  
> execute the install.rb file with ruby command but I got an error  
> concerning ftools.

Rake is distributed as a gem, should be able to install using  
RubyGems. Which version did you donwloaded? from where?

> Finally I gave up and decided to ask to the list.
> 
> Why is so difficult to install it? Can you please point me in the right  
> direction?

So far you’re the first one reporting these series of issues.

Please provide answers to my previous questions, more details from  
your side are required for anyone to be able to help you.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jasv](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/b19c9b/32.png) [@jasv](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jasv)\
**Post date:** [March 31, 2010, 3:58pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/need-help-installing-ruby-and-libraries/186052/4 "2010-03-31T15:58:07Z")

</div>

Jaime S. wrote:

> Hello…
> 
> This is the information you requested.
> 
> RubyGems Environment:
> 
> - RUBYGEMS VERSION: 1.3.6
> - RUBY VERSION: 1.9.1 (2010-01-10 patchlevel 378) [i386-mingw32]
> - INSTALLATION DIRECTORY: C:/Ruby19/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1
> - RUBY EXECUTABLE: C:/Ruby19/bin/ruby.exe
> - EXECUTABLE DIRECTORY: C:/Ruby19/bin
> - RUBYGEMS PLATFORMS:
> - ruby
> - x86-mingw32
> 
> - GEM PATHS:
> - C:/Ruby19/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1
> - C:/Documents and Settings/jstuardo/.gem/ruby/1.9.1
> 
> - GEM CONFIGURATION:
> - :update\_sources =\> true
> - :verbose =\> true
> - :benchmark =\> false
> - :backtrace =\> false
> - :bulk\_threshold =\> 1000
> 
> - REMOTE SOURCES:
> - [http://rubygems.org/](http://rubygems.org/)

You can try this:  
gem update rubygems  
gem install rails

But, I think you should delete / uninstall everything and start over.  
[http://rubyinstaller.org/download.html](http://rubyinstaller.org/download.html)  
I am almost certain that the Ruby Installer comes with RubyGems  
preinstalled, so by reinstalling it you may have broken things.

You should not need to download any gems manually.  
Installing Ruby, rebooting if necessary, then typing things in the  
command line should be enough:

gem update rubygems  
gem install rails

… It -should- download and install rails for you.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jasv](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/b19c9b/32.png) [@jasv](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jasv)\
**Post date:** [March 31, 2010, 4:43pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/need-help-installing-ruby-and-libraries/186052/5 "2010-03-31T16:43:10Z")

</div>

Hello…

I installed Ruby again and then I run the commands, getting these  
results:

C:\Documents and Settings\jstuardo\>gem update rubygems  
Updating installed gems  
Nothing to update

C:\Documents and Settings\jstuardo\>gem install rails  
ERROR: [http://gems.rubyforge.org/](http://gems.rubyforge.org/) does not appear to be a repository  
ERROR: could not find gem rails locally or in a repository

It’s curious that the first command gave the error “Nothing to update”,  
since Rubygems version installed was 1.3.5 and there is already the  
version 1.3.6.

These are the new environment:

RubyGems Environment:

- RUBYGEMS VERSION: 1.3.5
- RUBY VERSION: 1.9.1 (2010-01-10 patchlevel 378) [i386-mingw32]
- INSTALLATION DIRECTORY: C:/Ruby19/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1
- RUBY EXECUTABLE: C:/Ruby19/bin/ruby.exe
- EXECUTABLE DIRECTORY: C:/Ruby19/bin
- RUBYGEMS PLATFORMS:
  - ruby
  - x86-mingw32

- GEM PATHS:
  - C:/Ruby19/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1
  - C:/Documents and Settings/jstuardo/.gem/ruby/1.9.1

- GEM CONFIGURATION:
  - :update\_sources =\> true
  - :verbose =\> true
  - :benchmark =\> false
  - :backtrace =\> false
  - :bulk\_threshold =\> 1000

- REMOTE SOURCES:
  - [http://gems.rubyforge.org/](http://gems.rubyforge.org/)

Thanks  
Jaime

-----Mensaje original-----  
De: removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid [[mailto:removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid)]  
Enviado el: miércoles, 31 de marzo de 2010 10:58  
Para: ruby-talk ML  
Asunto: Re: Need help installing ruby and libraries

Jaime S. wrote:

> - RUBYGEMS PLATFORMS:
> - :bulk\_threshold =\> 1000
> 
> - REMOTE SOURCES:
> - [http://rubygems.org/](http://rubygems.org/)

You can try this:  
gem update rubygems  
gem install rails

But, I think you should delete / uninstall everything and start over.  
[http://rubyinstaller.org/download.html](http://rubyinstaller.org/download.html)  
I am almost certain that the Ruby Installer comes with RubyGems  
preinstalled, so by reinstalling it you may have broken things.

You should not need to download any gems manually.  
Installing Ruby, rebooting if necessary, then typing things in the  
command line should be enough:

gem update rubygems  
gem install rails

… It -should- download and install rails for you.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jasv](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/b19c9b/32.png) [@jasv](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jasv)\
**Post date:** [March 31, 2010, 4:50pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/need-help-installing-ruby-and-libraries/186052/6 "2010-03-31T16:50:29Z")

</div>

Jaime S. wrote:

> C:\Documents and Settings\jstuardo\>gem install rails  
> ERROR: [http://gems.rubyforge.org/](http://gems.rubyforge.org/) does not appear to be a repository

Are you behind a proxy firewall by any chance? Do you need to configure  
your browser with proxy settings before you can access the Internet? If  
so I think you’ll need to tell Ruby that too. (Unix would be http\_proxy  
environment variable, not sure about Windows)

You could also see what this does:

telnet [gems.rubyforge.org](http://gems.rubyforge.org) 80  
GET / HTTP/1.0

(then hit enter twice). If you get a page of HTML back, you don’t need a  
proxy. If it fails to connect at all, maybe you do.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jasv](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/b19c9b/32.png) [@jasv](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jasv)\
**Post date:** [March 31, 2010, 10:06pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/need-help-installing-ruby-and-libraries/186052/7 "2010-03-31T22:06:23Z")

</div>

On Mar 31, 3:25 pm, Jaime S. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:

> - RUBYGEMS PLATFORMS:
> - :bulk\_threshold =\> 1000
> 
> - REMOTE SOURCES:  
> -[http://rubygems.org/](http://rubygems.org/)
> 
> I am administrator of my computer.
> 
> Rake version is rake-0.8.7 downloaded fromhttp://rubyforge.org/frs/?group\_id=50
> 
> What do you mean it is distributed as a gem? From the link above it is mentioned the file as rake-0.8.7.gem, but when I click on it, a .tar file is downloaded.

I don’t understand why you manually download it:

gem install rake  
gem install rails

Both should work, if not:

1. You’re not connected to internet
2. You’re behind a proxy (is your browser using a proxy  
configuration?)

If so, need to do --http-proxy=[http://user:pass@server](http://user:pass@server):port/

See: gem help install

1. There is a firewall that is limiting all the downloads from Amazon  
S3, where all the gems from [rubygems.org](http://rubygems.org) are located.

> Finally, I tell you that I downloaded rails-2.2.3.gem fromhttp://rubyforge.org/frs/?group\_id=307but the same as above, a .tar file was actually downloaded.

It might be that your browser is not identifying the files with proper  
mime-type, but .gem is not a tar file, but instead 2 .tar and gz’ed  
files inside.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jasv](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/b19c9b/32.png) [@jasv](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jasv)\
**Post date:** [March 31, 2010, 5:04pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/need-help-installing-ruby-and-libraries/186052/8 "2010-03-31T17:04:07Z")

</div>

Brian C. wrote:

> Jaime S. wrote:
> 
> > C:\Documents and Settings\jstuardo\>gem install rails  
> > ERROR: [http://gems.rubyforge.org/](http://gems.rubyforge.org/) does not appear to be a repository
> 
> Are you behind a proxy firewall by any chance? Do you need to configure  
> your browser with proxy settings before you can access the Internet? If  
> so I think you’ll need to tell Ruby that too. (Unix would be http\_proxy  
> environment variable, not sure about Windows)
> 
> You could also see what this does:
> 
> telnet [gems.rubyforge.org](http://gems.rubyforge.org) 80  
> GET / HTTP/1.0
> 
> (then hit enter twice). If you get a page of HTML back, you don’t need a  
> proxy. If it fails to connect at all, maybe you do.

Since rubygems says ‘nothing to update’, I will guess it does a correct  
version check, so he does not need a proxy.

* * *

I had an issue like his before, and the answer had been to remove and  
readd the repository:  
gem source -r [http://gems.rubyforge.org](http://gems.rubyforge.org)  
gem source -a [http://gems.rubyforge.org](http://gems.rubyforge.org)

Now… I’m wondering why the source isn’t the gemcutter source to begin  
with!

I think you should try this:

gem source -a [http://gemcutter.org](http://gemcutter.org)  
gem install rails

* * *

If this fails, I found these instructions:

gem install rails --source [http://gems.rubyonrails.org](http://gems.rubyonrails.org)

indicates that “rake” is not up to date, I found a mirror  
[http://de.mirror.rubyforge.org/gems/](http://de.mirror.rubyforge.org/gems/) and downloaded rake-0.8.7.gem,

and

gem install rake-0.8.7.gem  
then

gem install rails --source [http://gems.rubyonrails.org](http://gems.rubyonrails.org)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jasv](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/b19c9b/32.png) [@jasv](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jasv)\
**Post date:** [March 31, 2010, 10:27pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/need-help-installing-ruby-and-libraries/186052/9 "2010-03-31T22:27:27Z")

</div>

Thanks!!! With that proxy setting, rails was installed. When installing  
rails, rake was also downloaded and installed.

-----Mensaje original-----  
De: Luis L. [[mailto:removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid)]  
Enviado el: miércoles, 31 de marzo de 2010 17:00  
Para: ruby-talk ML  
Asunto: Re: Need help installing ruby and libraries

On Mar 31, 3:25 pm, Jaime S. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:

> - RUBYGEMS PLATFORMS:
> - :bulk\_threshold =\> 1000
> 
> - REMOTE SOURCES:  
> -[http://rubygems.org/](http://rubygems.org/)
> 
> I am administrator of my computer.
> 
> Rake version is rake-0.8.7 downloaded fromhttp://rubyforge.org/frs/?group\_id=50
> 
> What do you mean it is distributed as a gem? From the link above it is mentioned the file as rake-0.8.7.gem, but when I click on it, a .tar file is downloaded.

I don’t understand why you manually download it:

gem install rake  
gem install rails

Both should work, if not:

1. You’re not connected to internet
2. You’re behind a proxy (is your browser using a proxy  
configuration?)

If so, need to do --http-proxy=[http://user:pass@server](http://user:pass@server):port/

See: gem help install

1. There is a firewall that is limiting all the downloads from Amazon  
S3, where all the gems from [rubygems.org](http://rubygems.org) are located.

> Finally, I tell you that I downloaded rails-2.2.3.gem fromhttp://rubyforge.org/frs/?group\_id=307but the same as above, a .tar file was actually downloaded.

It might be that your browser is not identifying the files with proper  
mime-type, but .gem is not a tar file, but instead 2 .tar and gz’ed  
files inside.