# Rails, Ubuntu dapper & Mongrel \> uninitialized constant Mong

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rails-ubuntu-dapper-mongrel-uninitialized-constant-mong/61490>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [May 24, 2006, 2:41pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rails-ubuntu-dapper-mongrel-uninitialized-constant-mong/61490 "2006-05-24T14:41:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 9\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![andreteves](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/dfb087/32.png) [@andreteves](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/andreteves)\
**Post date:** [May 24, 2006, 2:41pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rails-ubuntu-dapper-mongrel-uninitialized-constant-mong/61490/1 "2006-05-24T14:41:00Z")

</div>

This on Ubuntu testing with the default ruby1.8 package, RubyForge  
current  
gems, mongrel…this look familiar to anyone??

andre@andre:~/rails\_apps/depot$ mongrel\_rails  
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/mongrel-0.3.13/lib/mongrel/rails.rb:44:  
uninitialized constant Mongrel::HttpHandler (NameError)  
from  
/usr/local/lib/site\_ruby/1.8/rubygems/custom\_require.rb:21:in  
`require’  
from  
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/mongrel-0.3.13/bin/mongrel\_rails:5  
from /usr/bin/mongrel\_rails:18

Thanks,  
Andre

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![andreteves](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/dfb087/32.png) [@andreteves](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/andreteves)\
**Post date:** [May 24, 2006, 7:09pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rails-ubuntu-dapper-mongrel-uninitialized-constant-mong/61490/2 "2006-05-24T19:09:23Z")

</div>

On 24/05/06, Andre T. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:

> /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/mongrel-0.3.13/bin/mongrel\_rails:5  
> from /usr/bin/mongrel\_rails:18

Looks very familiar, had the same issue this afternoon on a system  
that didn’t have a compiler tool chain installed. The error is  
because you haven’t compiled the HttpHandler module and thus mongrel  
can’t run. Check you have gcc installed and check the installation  
process to see that it compiles http11 okay.

Paul.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![andreteves](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/dfb087/32.png) [@andreteves](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/andreteves)\
**Post date:** [May 24, 2006, 10:01pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rails-ubuntu-dapper-mongrel-uninitialized-constant-mong/61490/3 "2006-05-24T22:01:51Z")

</div>

On Wed, 2006-05-24 at 13:10 -0600, Andre T. wrote:

> gcc and friends installed, but http11 didn’t compile properly…kernel  
> header sources needed for this ?? it just seems kinda strange for a  
> gem to require this stuff…
> 
> I’ll probably take this over to “mongrel-users”, not sure it’s still  
> appropriate for “rails”…but maybe good for the listmonger to index  
> for future people with same issue…

I actually use Ubuntu now _just_ so I can suffer through all the crap  
people have to put up with from the Debian packaging of Ruby. That’s  
right, I suffer so everyone might get some relief.

First off, the pre-release (0.3.13) now checks to see if http11.so  
actually built and spits out a nasty error message. This should help  
with the silent denial from RubyGems when things fail.

Second, I have to write up the official Mongrel documentation on this  
but here’s what got me started:

- [http://howtoforge.com/perfect\_setup\_ubuntu\_5.10\_p5](http://howtoforge.com/perfect_setup_ubuntu_5.10_p5)

That whole series is really good, but this will get you a decent base  
apache, php, mysql setup going. It’s a little dated but should help a  
lot.

Then there’s this older documentation set, with these specific packages:

- [http://www.howtoforge.com/ruby\_on\_rails\_apache2\_fastcgi\_debian\_p4](http://www.howtoforge.com/ruby_on_rails_apache2_fastcgi_debian_p4)

These instructions install a whole ton of stuff, so you might want to go  
through them too. And remember that the stuff is old, so you’ll want to  
confirm versions and such.

Then you’ll also want to install packages for readline, irb, ri, and  
potentially ruby1.8-dev if that didn’t get installed. (I had to install  
it, but other folks don’t). If you get really stuck and desperate then  
you can try the shotgun approach:

sudo apt-get install `apt-cache search ruby | cut -d ' ' -f 1`

But I really don’t suggest this. When all that’s done, then you should  
go grab the source to RubyGems, install that manually (don’t use  
debian’s since they install to weird locations IIRC).

Additionally, most people don’t even bother with Debian’s packages and  
instead compile Ruby from source. I actually do this, but on my Ubuntu  
machine I forced myself through the pain so I can write up some  
instructions. YMMV.

Once you’ve done all that, I recommend that you complain to the package  
maintainers to create a meta-package that allows you to build gems that  
have compiled extensions in them.

The irony of the whole problem is if you bring up performance as a  
complaint people go off about how you need to learn C and make  
extensions and you’re a whiner. If you complain about how difficult it  
is to setup Debian with a Ruby capable of building extensions the Debian  
folks go off about how you’re an idiot and somehow carving a package  
into 200 discrete pieces makes it easier to test (because we all know  
that additional complexity makes things easier).

Since this is such a dichotomy with Ruby–and Mongrel is all about  
making it easier for folks–I’ll hopefully have some documentation for  
Mongrel users on this to match the Win32 documentation, but of course  
it’ll be much much longer since even with Ubuntu it’s a royal pain to  
get a decent development system going.

Let me know how far you get.

–  
Zed A. Shaw

> **[Zed A. shaw](https://zedshaw.com/)**
>
> Personal essays and writings by Zed A. Shaw.

[http://mongrel.rubyforge.org/](http://mongrel.rubyforge.org/)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![andreteves](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/dfb087/32.png) [@andreteves](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/andreteves)\
**Post date:** [May 24, 2006, 9:17pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rails-ubuntu-dapper-mongrel-uninitialized-constant-mong/61490/4 "2006-05-24T21:17:32Z")

</div>

gcc and friends installed, but http11 didn’t compile properly…kernel  
header sources needed for this ?? it just seems kinda strange for a gem  
to  
require this stuff…

I’ll probably take this over to “mongrel-users”, not sure it’s still  
appropriate for “rails”…but maybe good for the listmonger to index for  
future people with same issue…

andre@andre:~$ sudo gem install mongrel  
Attempting local installation of ‘mongrel’  
Local gem file not found: mongrel\*.gem  
Attempting remote installation of ‘mongrel’  
Select which gem to install for your platform (i486-linux)

1. mongrel 0.3.12.4 (ruby)
2. mongrel 0.3.12.4 (mswin32)
3. mongrel 0.3.12.3 (mswin32)
4. mongrel 0.3.12.3 (ruby)
5. mongrel 0.3.12.2 (ruby)
6. mongrel 0.3.12.2 (mswin32)
7. mongrel 0.3.12.1 (mswin32)
8. mongrel 0.3.12.1 (ruby)
9. mongrel 0.3.12 (mswin32)
10. mongrel 0.3.12 (ruby)
11. mongrel 0.3.11 (ruby)
12. mongrel 0.3.11 (mswin32)
13. mongrel 0.3.10.1 (ruby)
14. mongrel 0.3.10 (ruby)
15. mongrel 0.3.9 (ruby)
16. mongrel 0.3.8 (ruby)
17. mongrel 0.3.8 (mswin32)
18. mongrel 0.3.7.1 (ruby)
19. mongrel 0.3.7.1 (mswin32)
20. mongrel 0.3.7 (ruby)
21. mongrel 0.3.6 (ruby)
22. mongrel 0.3.6 (mswin32)
23. mongrel 0.3.5 (ruby)
24. mongrel 0.3.5 (mswin32)
25. mongrel 0.3.4 (mswin32)
26. mongrel 0.3.4 (ruby)
27. mongrel 0.3.3 (ruby)
28. mongrel 0.3.2 (ruby)
29. mongrel 0.3.1 (ruby)
30. mongrel 0.3 (ruby)
31. mongrel 0.2.2 (ruby)
32. mongrel 0.2.1 (ruby)
33. mongrel 0.2.0 (ruby)
34. Cancel installation

> 1  
> Building native extensions. This could take a while…  
> In file included from http11.c:1:  
> /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/i486-linux/ruby.h:28:21: error: stdlib.h: No such file  
> or  
> directory  
> /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/i486-linux/ruby.h:32:21: error: string.h: No such file  
> or  
> directory  
> /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/i486-linux/ruby.h:42:19: error: stdio.h: No such file  
> or  
> directory  
> /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/i486-linux/ruby.h:64:20: error: alloca.h: No such file  
> or  
> directory  
> In file included from  
> /usr/lib/gcc/i486-linux-gnu/4.0.3/include/syslimits.h:7,  
> from  
> /usr/lib/gcc/i486-linux-gnu/4.0.3/include/limits.h:11,  
> from /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/i486-linux/ruby.h:84,  
> from http11.c:1:  
> /usr/lib/gcc/i486-linux-gnu/4.0.3/include/limits.h:122:61: error:  
> limits.h:  
> No such file or directory  
> In file included from /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/i486-linux/ruby.h:677,  
> from http11.c:1:  
> /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/i486-linux/missing.h:16:24: error: sys/time.h: No such  
> file or directory  
> /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/i486-linux/missing.h:25:25: error: sys/types.h: No  
> such  
> file or directory  
> In file included from /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/i486-linux/ruby.h:678,  
> from http11.c:1:  
> /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/i486-linux/intern.h:215: error: syntax error before  
> ‘fd\_set’  
> /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/i486-linux/intern.h:216: warning: ‘struct timeval’  
> declared inside parameter list  
> /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/i486-linux/intern.h:216: warning: its scope is only  
> this  
> definition or declaration, which is probably not what you want  
> /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/i486-linux/intern.h:446: warning: parameter names  
> (without  
> types) in function declaration  
> In file included from http11.c:1:  
> /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/i486-linux/ruby.h:687:21: error: pthread.h: No such  
> file  
> or directory  
> In file included from http11.c:1:  
> /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/i486-linux/ruby.h:689: error: syntax error before  
> ‘rb\_nativethread\_t’  
> /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/i486-linux/ruby.h:689: warning: type defaults to ‘int’  
> in  
> declaration of ‘rb\_nativethread\_t’  
> /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/i486-linux/ruby.h:689: warning: data definition has no  
> type or storage class  
> http11.c:3:20: error: assert.h: No such file or directory  
> http11.c:6:19: error: ctype.h: No such file or directory  
> http11.c: In function ‘http\_field’:  
> http11.c:72: warning: implicit declaration of function ‘toupper’  
> http11.c: In function ‘header\_done’:  
> http11.c:144: warning: implicit declaration of function ‘strchr’  
> http11.c:144: warning: incompatible implicit declaration of built-in  
> function ‘strchr’  
> http11.c:126: warning: unused variable ‘port’  
> http11.c:125: warning: unused variable ‘host’  
> http11.c: In function ‘HttpParser\_free’:  
> http11.c:165: warning: implicit declaration of function ‘free’  
> http11.c: In function ‘URIClassifier\_alloc’:  
> http11.c:333: warning: implicit declaration of function ‘assert’  
> make: \*\*\* [http11.o] Error 1  
> In file included from http11.c:1:  
> /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/i486-linux/ruby.h:28:21: error: stdlib.h: No such file  
> or  
> directory  
> /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/i486-linux/ruby.h:32:21: error: string.h: No such file  
> or  
> directory  
> /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/i486-linux/ruby.h:42:19: error: stdio.h: No such file  
> or  
> directory  
> /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/i486-linux/ruby.h:64:20: error: alloca.h: No such file  
> or  
> directory  
> In file included from  
> /usr/lib/gcc/i486-linux-gnu/4.0.3/include/syslimits.h:7,  
> from  
> /usr/lib/gcc/i486-linux-gnu/4.0.3/include/limits.h:11,  
> from /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/i486-linux/ruby.h:84,  
> from http11.c:1:  
> /usr/lib/gcc/i486-linux-gnu/4.0.3/include/limits.h:122:61: error:  
> limits.h:  
> No such file or directory  
> In file included from /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/i486-linux/ruby.h:677,  
> from http11.c:1:  
> /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/i486-linux/missing.h:16:24: error: sys/time.h: No such  
> file or directory  
> /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/i486-linux/missing.h:25:25: error: sys/types.h: No  
> such  
> file or directory  
> In file included from /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/i486-linux/ruby.h:678,  
> from http11.c:1:  
> /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/i486-linux/intern.h:215: error: syntax error before  
> ‘fd\_set’  
> /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/i486-linux/intern.h:216: warning: ‘struct timeval’  
> declared inside parameter list  
> /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/i486-linux/intern.h:216: warning: its scope is only  
> this  
> definition or declaration, which is probably not what you want  
> /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/i486-linux/intern.h:446: warning: parameter names  
> (without  
> types) in function declaration  
> In file included from http11.c:1:  
> /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/i486-linux/ruby.h:687:21: error: pthread.h: No such  
> file  
> or directory  
> In file included from http11.c:1:  
> /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/i486-linux/ruby.h:689: error: syntax error before  
> ‘rb\_nativethread\_t’  
> /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/i486-linux/ruby.h:689: warning: type defaults to ‘int’  
> in  
> declaration of ‘rb\_nativethread\_t’  
> /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/i486-linux/ruby.h:689: warning: data definition has no  
> type or storage class  
> http11.c:3:20: error: assert.h: No such file or directory  
> http11.c:6:19: error: ctype.h: No such file or directory  
> http11.c: In function ‘http\_field’:  
> http11.c:72: warning: implicit declaration of function ‘toupper’  
> http11.c: In function ‘header\_done’:  
> http11.c:144: warning: implicit declaration of function ‘strchr’  
> http11.c:144: warning: incompatible implicit declaration of built-in  
> function ‘strchr’  
> http11.c:126: warning: unused variable ‘port’  
> http11.c:125: warning: unused variable ‘host’  
> http11.c: In function ‘HttpParser\_free’:  
> http11.c:165: warning: implicit declaration of function ‘free’  
> http11.c: In function ‘URIClassifier\_alloc’:  
> http11.c:333: warning: implicit declaration of function ‘assert’  
> make: \*\*\* [http11.o] Error 1  
> ruby extconf.rb install mongrel  
> checking for main() in -lc… no  
> creating Makefile

make  
gcc -fPIC -Wall -g -O2 -fPIC -I. -I/usr/lib/ruby/1.8/i486-linux  
-I/usr/lib/ruby/1.8/i486-linux -I. -c http11.c

make install  
gcc -fPIC -Wall -g -O2 -fPIC -I. -I/usr/lib/ruby/1.8/i486-linux  
-I/usr/lib/ruby/1.8/i486-linux -I. -c http11.c  
Successfully installed mongrel-0.3.12.4  
Installing RDoc documentation for mongrel-0.3.12.4…  
andre@andre:~$

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![andreteves](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/dfb087/32.png) [@andreteves](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/andreteves)\
**Post date:** [May 24, 2006, 10:17pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rails-ubuntu-dapper-mongrel-uninitialized-constant-mong/61490/5 "2006-05-24T22:17:58Z")

</div>

Thanks Z for the info, I’ll fight with it until I finish it or it  
finishes  
me, then I’ll post back.

-Andre

On 5/24/06, Zed S. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:

> These instructions install a whole ton of stuff, so you might want to go  
> But I really don’t suggest this. When all that’s done, then you should  
> have compiled extensions in them.  
> making it easier for folks–I’ll hopefully have some documentation for
> 
> * * *
> 
> Rails mailing list  
> removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid  
> [http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails](http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails)

# –

andre turpin

em: removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid  
ph: 867-874-5819

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![andreteves](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/dfb087/32.png) [@andreteves](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/andreteves)\
**Post date:** [May 24, 2006, 10:39pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rails-ubuntu-dapper-mongrel-uninitialized-constant-mong/61490/6 "2006-05-24T22:39:25Z")

</div>

On Wed, 2006-05-24 at 16:01 -0400, Zed S. wrote:

> Additionally, most people don’t even bother with Debian’s packages and  
> instead compile Ruby from source. I actually do this, but on my Ubuntu  
> machine I forced myself through the pain so I can write up some  
> instructions. YMMV.

If you choose to install Ruby from source, but still want it Debian  
packaged (for easy removal or updating in the future, and all of those  
other great things that apt/dpkg provides), you can use checkinstall to  
create a package. It’s pretty easy to use.

Just sudo apt-get install checkinstall, then, instead of doing ‘make  
install’ as the last step of installing via the make chain, just type  
‘checkinstall’ instead.

So:  
./configure  
make  
checkinstall

–

– AL –

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![andreteves](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/dfb087/32.png) [@andreteves](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/andreteves)\
**Post date:** [June 3, 2006, 12:56am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rails-ubuntu-dapper-mongrel-uninitialized-constant-mong/61490/7 "2006-06-03T00:56:17Z")

</div>

On Fri, 2006-06-02 at 14:10 -0400, Alison Rowland wrote:

> I’m currently running Litespeed, proxying to Mongrel. I had some  
> issues with Mongrel\_Cluster which were probably related to Ubuntu’s  
> ruby packaging, but I figured out a solution and have written it up at  
> [2].

Very nice Alison. Glad you got over the nasty debian hump. It still  
baffles me why that platform is so difficult for Ruby.

–  
Zed A. Shaw

> **[Zed A. shaw](https://zedshaw.com/)**
>
> Personal essays and writings by Zed A. Shaw.

[http://mongrel.rubyforge.org/](http://mongrel.rubyforge.org/)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![andreteves](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/dfb087/32.png) [@andreteves](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/andreteves)\
**Post date:** [June 28, 2006, 11:41am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rails-ubuntu-dapper-mongrel-uninitialized-constant-mong/61490/8 "2006-06-28T11:41:04Z")

</div>

> Looks very familiar, had the same issue this afternoon on a system  
> that didn’t have a compiler tool chain installed. The error is  
> because you haven’t compiled the HttpHandler module and thus mongrel  
> can’t run. Check you have gcc installed and check the installation  
> process to see that it compiles http11 okay.

\*\* Also check if you have ‘make’ installed \*\*.

I had a similar problem - installed ubuntu 6.06 x86\_64 yesterday and  
mongrel  
rails complained about uninitialized constant. I had gcc already  
installed,  
but was surprised to discover that ubuntu does not install GNU make by  
default! Ubuntu is indeed an user- not nerd-oriented system ;-)!

After the installation of ‘make’ with synaptic, I had to uninstall  
mongrel

# sudo gem uninstall mongrel

and install it again:

# sudo gem install mongrel.

Now mongrel\_rails starts as it should.

## Yuri Baranov _baranovu\_AT\_gmail\_DOT\_com_

View this message in context:  
[http://www.nabble.com/Rails%2C-Ubuntu-dapper---Mongrel-\>-uninitialized-constant-Mongrel%3A%3AHttpHandler-error-tf1674833.html#a5081123](http://www.nabble.com/Rails%2C-Ubuntu-dapper---Mongrel-%3E-uninitialized-constant-Mongrel%3A%3AHttpHandler-error-tf1674833.html#a5081123)  
Sent from the RubyOnRails Users forum at [Nabble.com](http://Nabble.com).

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![andreteves](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/dfb087/32.png) [@andreteves](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/andreteves)\
**Post date:** [June 2, 2006, 8:13pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rails-ubuntu-dapper-mongrel-uninitialized-constant-mong/61490/9 "2006-06-02T20:13:32Z")

</div>

FWIW, I used Ezra Z.’ instructions [1] for setting up a  
deployment server, using Ubuntu instead of Debian, and things are  
going just fine. I upgraded to Dapper before it was released, so I  
could get ruby 1.8.4 instead of Breezy’s 1.8.3.

Perhaps there’s something in Ezra’s directions that will be helpful.

I’m currently running Litespeed, proxying to Mongrel. I had some  
issues with Mongrel\_Cluster which were probably related to Ubuntu’s  
ruby packaging, but I figured out a solution and have written it up at  
[2].

[1]  
[http://brainspl.at/articles/2005/11/13/the-perfect-lightweight-rails-lighttpd-debian-install](http://brainspl.at/articles/2005/11/13/the-perfect-lightweight-rails-lighttpd-debian-install)  
[2]  
[http://blog.alisonrowland.com/articles/2006/06/01/mongrel\_cluster\_ctl-at-startup-on-ubuntu-6-06](http://blog.alisonrowland.com/articles/2006/06/01/mongrel_cluster_ctl-at-startup-on-ubuntu-6-06)

Good luck.

–Alison