# Using gems problem -- LoadError

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/using-gems-problem-loaderror/57632>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [April 12, 2006, 5:02pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/using-gems-problem-loaderror/57632 "2006-04-12T17:02:48Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Vladsialv\_T](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/v/aeb1de/32.png) [@Vladsialv\_T](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Vladsialv_T)\
**Post date:** [April 12, 2006, 5:02pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/using-gems-problem-loaderror/57632/1 "2006-04-12T17:02:48Z")

</div>

Hello all,  
I am a newbie with ruby and gems and I have this frustrating problem not  
being  
able to load any gem I install. I am running Ubuntu 5.10 and I have just  
installed ruby1.8 deb (1.8.4) and have compiled rubygems-0.8.11 without  
any  
problem. I am able to load rubygems (require ‘rubygems’) and I setup  
RUBYOPT  
var as advised in gems doc (export RUBYOPT=rubygems). However, when I  
try to  
load a gem ($ruby1.8 -e "require ‘some\_gem’ ") I always get an error  
(This is  
for xml-simple gem:

/usr/local/lib/site\_ruby/1.8/rubygems/custom\_require.rb:21:in  
`require__': no such file to load -- xml-simple (LoadError) from /usr/local/lib/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems/custom_require.rb:21:in`require’  
from -e:1

I checked and it seems that rubygems creates a dir-y for every installed  
gem  
in /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/, but this dir-y is not in the load path:  
$ ruby1.8 -e “p $:”  
["/usr/local/lib/site\_ruby/1.8",  
“/usr/local/lib/site\_ruby/1.8/i486-linux”,  
“/usr/local/lib/site\_ruby/1.8/i386-linux”, “/usr/local/lib/site\_ruby”,  
“/usr/lib/ruby/1.8”, “/usr/lib/ruby/1.8/i486-linux”,  
“/usr/lib/ruby/1.8/i386-linux”, “.”]

… in the other hand rubygems has been installed  
in /usr/local/lib/site\_ruby/1.8/

$ ls -l /usr/local/lib/site\_ruby/1.8  
gemconfigure.rb  
i486-linux  
rubygems  
rubygems.rb  
ubygems.rb

So at this point I am confused … Could someone help me understand what  
I am  
missing here or point me to a doc or howto

Cheers  
Vlad

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Vladsialv\_T](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/v/aeb1de/32.png) [@Vladsialv\_T](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Vladsialv_T)\
**Post date:** [April 12, 2006, 5:09pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/using-gems-problem-loaderror/57632/2 "2006-04-12T17:09:01Z")

</div>

On 4/12/06, Vladsialv T. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:

> Hello all,  
> I am a newbie with ruby and gems and I have this frustrating problem not being  
> able to load any gem I install. I am running Ubuntu 5.10 and I have just  
> installed ruby1.8 deb (1.8.4) and have compiled rubygems-0.8.11 without any  
> problem. I am able to load rubygems (require ‘rubygems’) and I setup RUBYOPT  
> var as advised in gems doc (export RUBYOPT=rubygems). However, when I try to  
> load a gem ($ruby1.8 -e "require ‘some\_gem’ ") I always get an error (This is  
> for xml-simple gem:

Try “require ‘xml/simple’”. One has to require the libraries that are  
represented in the gem, not the gem itself.

With some gems, you can autorequire the code by requiring\_gem-ing the  
gem, but this functionality may ultimately go away and it is dependent  
on each gem.

The xml-simple gem documentation should indicate what you must include.

-austin

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Vladsialv\_T](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/v/aeb1de/32.png) [@Vladsialv\_T](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Vladsialv_T)\
**Post date:** [April 12, 2006, 6:59pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/using-gems-problem-loaderror/57632/3 "2006-04-12T18:59:45Z")

</div>

Thank you Austin … that was it… I was using wrong libraries names

Cheers  
Vlad