# Unable to access fireruby lib

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/unable-to-access-fireruby-lib/114743>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [September 17, 2007, 1:25pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/unable-to-access-fireruby-lib/114743 "2007-09-17T13:25:01Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![lee](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/bc8723/32.png) [@lee](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/lee)\
**Post date:** [September 17, 2007, 1:25pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/unable-to-access-fireruby-lib/114743/1 "2007-09-17T13:25:01Z")

</div>

I am getting the following controller exception when trying to access  
my newly installed Firebird DB (to replace MySQL) from my app.

libfbclient.so.1: cannot open shared object file: No such file or  
directory - /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/fireruby-0.4.0-i586-  
linux/lib/fr\_lib.so

I have installed the fireruby gem using “sudo gem install fireruby”  
and the file can be found on my filesystem by following the path  
above.

Any ideas most appreciated. The fireruby wiki is unavailable.

Thanks,  
Lee.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![lee](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/bc8723/32.png) [@lee](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/lee)\
**Post date:** [September 17, 2007, 1:25pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/unable-to-access-fireruby-lib/114743/2 "2007-09-17T13:25:01Z")

</div>

The problem is that fireruby can not find libfbclient.so.1. You need to  
find the path to this file on your system and add that path to either  
the LD\_LIBRARY\_PATH or you can add it to /etc/ld.so.conf then run  
/sbin/ldconfig. This should solve the issue. Here is a page explaining  
shared libraries a bit more in depth:

[http://tldp.org/HOWTO/Program-Library-HOWTO/shared-libraries.html](http://tldp.org/HOWTO/Program-Library-HOWTO/shared-libraries.html)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![lee](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/bc8723/32.png) [@lee](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/lee)\
**Post date:** [September 25, 2007, 11:02pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/unable-to-access-fireruby-lib/114743/3 "2007-09-25T23:02:38Z")

</div>

Thanks. Very helpful.

I looked for the file and could only find a link (libfbclient.so.2) to  
the file libfbclient.so.2.0.1 in Firebird’s /lib directory.

So I created a link called libfbclient.so.1 to point to the same file.

This solved the problem - I can now reach the database from my rails  
app.

I assume fireruby is expecting a libfbclient file for Firebird 1.x.x  
whereas I have installed Firebird 2.0.1.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![lee](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/bc8723/32.png) [@lee](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/lee)\
**Post date:** [September 25, 2007, 11:05pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/unable-to-access-fireruby-lib/114743/4 "2007-09-25T23:05:36Z")

</div>

The problem is that fireruby can not find libfbclient.so.1. You need to  
find the path to this file on your system and add that path to either  
the LD\_LIBRARY\_PATH or you can add it to /etc/ld.so.conf then run  
/sbin/ldconfig. This should solve the issue. Here is a page explaining  
shared libraries a bit more in depth:

[http://tldp.org/HOWTO/Program-Library-HOWTO/shared-libraries.html](http://tldp.org/HOWTO/Program-Library-HOWTO/shared-libraries.html)