# Rubgems in user directory - HELP! **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [February 5, 2007, 1:50am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rubgems-in-user-directory-help/84472 "2007-02-05T01:50:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![james](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/bc8723/32.png) [@james](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/james)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2007, 1:50am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rubgems-in-user-directory-help/84472/1 "2007-02-05T01:50:34Z")
I’m trying to install ruby on rails to a host server that I don’t have root access to. The server already has ruby. I’ve followed the info on these two pages for installing rubygems in a non-root user directory: [http://rubygems.org/read/chapter/3](http://rubygems.org/read/chapter/3) [http://wiki.rubyonrails.com/rails/pages/HowToUseMultipleGemRepositories](http://wiki.rubyonrails.com/rails/pages/HowToUseMultipleGemRepositories) rubygems appears to be installed correctly but when I do “gem install rails” I get this error: ERROR: While executing gem … (Gem::RemoteFetcher::FetchError) Permission denied - connect(2)(Errno::EACCES) I’ve changed my $PATH to include the gem installation dir, I have my $RUBYLIB set to /home/geminstall/lib/ruby/site\_ruby/1.8, and have set the $GEM\_HOME path to my gem repository. is it possible to be completely unable to install ROR on a hosting company server because of lack of permissions? or am I missing something? please help! ---
**Author:** ![james](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/bc8723/32.png) [@james](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/james)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2007, 2:06am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rubgems-in-user-directory-help/84472/2 "2007-02-05T02:06:36Z")
If you just need a different version of rails than your host provides you are better off to just install rails (or freeze it) into your application’s vendor/rails directory. It is possible to get your own version of Rubygems up and running on a shared host. Here’s what I did on Textdrive a while back. [http://www.stevelongdo.com/articles/2006/08/31/installing-a-patched-rubygems-on-textdrive](http://www.stevelongdo.com/articles/2006/08/31/installing-a-patched-rubygems-on-textdrive) On 2/4/07, james [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > rubygems appears to be installed correctly but when I do "gem install > company server because of lack of permissions? or am I missing > something? > > please help! > > > – Thanks, -Steve [http://www.stevelongdo.com](http://www.stevelongdo.com) ---
**Author:** ![james](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/bc8723/32.png) [@james](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/james)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2007, 2:20am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rubgems-in-user-directory-help/84472/3 "2007-02-05T02:20:39Z")
actually, the host ([aplus.net](http://aplus.net)) has no rails or rubygems installed, only ruby, and I don’t have access to it’s dir (and the host offers no help or support for installing ror) I’m limited to my /home/myusername level I was getting the typical: …/bin/gem:9:in `require’: no such file to load – rubygems (LoadError) when trying to do “gem install rails”, until I set the RUBYLIB path to /home/geminstall/lib/ruby/site\_ruby/1.8 and now I’m getting this strange error: ERROR: While executing gem … (Gem::RemoteFetcher::FetchError) Permission denied - connect(2)(Errno::EACCES) which I can’t seem to find anyone else getting in this situation. I can’t seem to get past this point. ---
**Author:** ![james](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/bc8723/32.png) [@james](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/james)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2007, 2:27am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rubgems-in-user-directory-help/84472/4 "2007-02-05T02:27:39Z")
ERROR: While executing gem … (Gem::RemoteFetcher::FetchError) > ``` > Permission denied - connect(2)(Errno::EACCES) > > ``` I would imagine that you are unable to connect to the gemserver either because of permissions or some sort of network/firewall configuration on the host. Fortunately you can copy the gems from your local repository up to the rubygems that you have installed on your hosting provider. On 2/4/07, james [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > (LoadError) > > > > I’m trying to install ruby on rails to a host server that I don’t have > > > ERROR: While executing gem … (Gem::RemoteFetcher::FetchError) > > > please help! > > > > – > > Thanks, > > -Stevehttp://www.stevelongdo.com > > > – Thanks, -Steve [http://www.stevelongdo.com](http://www.stevelongdo.com) ---
**Author:** ![james](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/bc8723/32.png) [@james](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/james)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2007, 2:34am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rubgems-in-user-directory-help/84472/5 "2007-02-05T02:34:39Z")
that’s a good point, I’ll just try copy my gems from my hard drive. thanks Steve!