# Problem starting WEBrick

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/problem-starting-webrick/151954>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [October 28, 2008, 11:14am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/problem-starting-webrick/151954 "2008-10-28T11:14:50Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![amin1426](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/4da419/32.png) [@amin1426](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/amin1426)\
**Post date:** [October 28, 2008, 11:14am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/problem-starting-webrick/151954/1 "2008-10-28T11:14:50Z")

</div>

Ruby nuby here, but this seems like I overlooked something. I’m running  
Rails 2.1.1 on Mac OS Leopard.

I go into terminal and create an app:

rails whatever

I move into my app and try to start WEBrick

cd ./whatever  
ruby script/server

And I get the following error:

Rails requires RubyGems \>= . Please install RubyGems and try again:  
[http://rubygems.rubyforge.org](http://rubygems.rubyforge.org)

However, I already have RubyGems 1.3.0 installed, so I’m not sure where  
this issue comes from. The fact that the error also doesn’t denote a  
RubyGems version seems strange.

Any ideas? I’m really stuck on this and can’t find anything via Google  
or the forum.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![amin1426](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/4da419/32.png) [@amin1426](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/amin1426)\
**Post date:** [October 28, 2008, 12:24pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/problem-starting-webrick/151954/2 "2008-10-28T12:24:41Z")

</div>

Rails checks the RubyGems version using Gem::RubyGemsVersion. I launched  
IRB  
and queried the version:

$ irb

> > Gem::RubyGemsVersion  
> > =\> “1.2.0”

What does yours report?

Based on the error message that you received, I expect it to report an  
empty  
string.

I’m on Mac OS X 10.5.5 using the built-in Ruby, 1.8.6 p114.

$ ruby -v  
ruby 1.8.6 (2008-03-03 patchlevel 114) [universal-darwin9.0]

What versions of OS X and Ruby are you running? Did you install Ruby  
from  
source or via MacPorts or Fink?

Regards,  
Craig

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![amin1426](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/4da419/32.png) [@amin1426](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/amin1426)\
**Post date:** [October 28, 2008, 5:28pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/problem-starting-webrick/151954/3 "2008-10-28T17:28:15Z")

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Craig D. wrote:

> Rails checks the RubyGems version using Gem::RubyGemsVersion. I launched  
> IRB  
> and queried the version:
> 
> $ irb
> 
> > > Gem::RubyGemsVersion  
> > > =\> “1.2.0”
> 
> What does yours report?

irb(main):001:0\> Gem::RubyGemsVersion  
NameError: uninitialized constant Gem  
from (irb):1  
irb(main):002:0\>

> Based on the error message that you received, I expect it to report an  
> empty  
> string.
> 
> I’m on Mac OS X 10.5.5 using the built-in Ruby, 1.8.6 p114.
> 
> $ ruby -v  
> ruby 1.8.6 (2008-03-03 patchlevel 114) [universal-darwin9.0]
> 
> What versions of OS X and Ruby are you running? Did you install Ruby  
> from  
> source or via MacPorts or Fink?

I believe I’m running Ruby 1.8.7 from source. Again, being a complete  
nube, I really have no clue which file(s):

Macintosh-3:~ johnclaus$ ruby --version  
ruby 1.8.7 (2008-08-11 patchlevel 72) [i686-darwin9.4.0]

I’m also running Leopard 10.5.5.

> Regards,  
> Craig

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![amin1426](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/4da419/32.png) [@amin1426](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/amin1426)\
**Post date:** [October 29, 2008, 4:58am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/problem-starting-webrick/151954/4 "2008-10-29T04:58:42Z")

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Since rails comes in as a gem, it’s doubtful that you don’t have  
rubygems installed. It is possible that you have ruby and gems  
installed in non-standard locations.

On my mac:

which ruby =\> /opt/local/bin/ruby  
which gem =\> /opt/local/bin/gem  
which rails =\> /opt/local/bin/rails

ruby --version =\> ruby 1.8.7 (2008-08-11 patchlevel 72) [powerpc-  
darwin9]  
gem --version =\> 1.3.0  
rails --version =\> Rails 2.2.0

NOTE: This is not what ships on the mac - that’s all found below:

/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/…

You would probably do best if you go to: [Ruby on Rails — A web-app framework that includes everything needed to create database-backed web applications according to the Model-View-Controller (MVC) pattern.](http://www.rubyonrails.org/down)  
and follow the directions there.