'Error when installing Ruby on Rails: "Failed to build gem native extension"

I'm running Crunchbang 11 (Debian-based).

I'm trying to install Ruby on Rails, like this:

gem install rails --version 4.0.0

I get the error "Failed to build gem native extension".

My ruby is version 2.0.0p247, my RubyGems is 2.0.0.

What's the issue here?


This is the full error output:

Building native extensions.  This could take a while...
ERROR:  Error installing rails:
    ERROR: Failed to build gem native extension.

    /home/erlkoenig/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.0.0-p247/bin/ruby extconf.rb
creating Makefile

make
compiling atomic_reference.c
linking shared-object atomic_reference.so

make install
/usr/bin/install -c -m 0755 atomic_reference.so /home/erlkoenig/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.0.0-p247/gems/atomic-1.1.10/lib/home/erlkoenig/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.0.0-p247/lib/ruby/site_ruby/2.0.0/x86_64-linux
/usr/bin/install: cannot create regular file `/home/erlkoenig/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.0.0-p247/gems/atomic-1.1.10/lib/home/erlkoenig/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.0.0-p247/lib/ruby/site_ruby/2.0.0/x86_64-linux': No such file or directory
make: *** [install-so] Error 1


Gem files will remain installed in /home/erlkoenig/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.0.0-p247/gems/atomic-1.1.10 for inspection.
Results logged to /home/erlkoenig/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.0.0-p247/gems/atomic-1.1.10/ext/gem_make.out

My env:

ORBIT_SOCKETDIR=/tmp/orbit-erlkoenig
SSH_AGENT_PID=2695
rvm_bin_path=/home/erlkoenig/.rvm/bin
GEM_HOME=/home/erlkoenig/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.0.0-p247
SHELL=/bin/bash
TERM=xterm-256color
XDG_SESSION_COOKIE=9e0343c07c890bd2d60ee6a750f36c6c-1373892339.852749-193038580
IRBRC=/home/erlkoenig/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.0.0-p247/.irbrc
WINDOWID=39845892
GNOME_KEYRING_CONTROL=/home/erlkoenig/.cache/keyring-g6PRS5
MY_RUBY_HOME=/home/erlkoenig/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.0.0-p247
USER=erlkoenig
LS_COLORS=rs=0:di=01;34:ln=01;36:mh=00:pi=40;33:so=01;35:do=01;35:bd=40;33;01:cd=40;33;01:or=40;31;01:su=37;41:sg=30;43:ca=30;41:tw=30;42:ow=34;42:st=37;44:ex=01;32:*.tar=01;31:*.tgz=01;31:*.arj=01;31:*.taz=01;31:*.lzh=01;31:*.lzma=01;31:*.tlz=01;31:*.txz=01;31:*.zip=01;31:*.z=01;31:*.Z=01;31:*.dz=01;31:*.gz=01;31:*.lz=01;31:*.xz=01;31:*.bz2=01;31:*.bz=01;31:*.tbz=01;31:*.tbz2=01;31:*.tz=01;31:*.deb=01;31:*.rpm=01;31:*.jar=01;31:*.war=01;31:*.ear=01;31:*.sar=01;31:*.rar=01;31:*.ace=01;31:*.zoo=01;31:*.cpio=01;31:*.7z=01;31:*.rz=01;31:*.jpg=01;35:*.jpeg=01;35:*.gif=01;35:*.bmp=01;35:*.pbm=01;35:*.pgm=01;35:*.ppm=01;35:*.tga=01;35:*.xbm=01;35:*.xpm=01;35:*.tif=01;35:*.tiff=01;35:*.png=01;35:*.svg=01;35:*.svgz=01;35:*.mng=01;35:*.pcx=01;35:*.mov=01;35:*.mpg=01;35:*.mpeg=01;35:*.m2v=01;35:*.mkv=01;35:*.webm=01;35:*.ogm=01;35:*.mp4=01;35:*.m4v=01;35:*.mp4v=01;35:*.vob=01;35:*.qt=01;35:*.nuv=01;35:*.wmv=01;35:*.asf=01;35:*.rm=01;35:*.rmvb=01;35:*.flc=01;35:*.avi=01;35:*.fli=01;35:*.flv=01;35:*.gl=01;35:*.dl=01;35:*.xcf=01;35:*.xwd=01;35:*.yuv=01;35:*.cgm=01;35:*.emf=01;35:*.axv=01;35:*.anx=01;35:*.ogv=01;35:*.ogx=01;35:*.aac=00;36:*.au=00;36:*.flac=00;36:*.mid=00;36:*.midi=00;36:*.mka=00;36:*.mp3=00;36:*.mpc=00;36:*.ogg=00;36:*.ra=00;36:*.wav=00;36:*.axa=00;36:*.oga=00;36:*.spx=00;36:*.xspf=00;36:
rvm_path=/home/erlkoenig/.rvm
SSH_AUTH_SOCK=/tmp/ssh-XVmUxMD7LHwi/agent.2651
rvm_prefix=/home/erlkoenig
PATH=/home/erlkoenig/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.0.0-p247/bin:/home/erlkoenig/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.0.0-p247@global/bin:/home/erlkoenig/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.0.0-p247/bin:/home/erlkoenig/.rvm/bin:/home/erlkoenig/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/local/games:/usr/games:/home/erlkoenig/.rvm/bin:/home/erlkoenig/.scripts:/home/erlkoenig/.scripts/netlogo-5.0.3:/opt/node/bin
MAIL=/var/mail/erlkoenig
PWD=/home/erlkoenig
EDITOR=vim
GNOME_KEYRING_PID=2575
LANG=en_US.UTF-8
rvm_env_string=ruby-2.0.0-p247
rvm_version=1.21.9 (stable)
SHLVL=1
HOME=/home/erlkoenig
rvm_ruby_string=ruby-2.0.0-p247
LOGNAME=erlkoenig
GEM_PATH=/home/erlkoenig/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.0.0-p247:/home/erlkoenig/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.0.0-p247@global
DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS=unix:abstract=/tmp/dbus-9eOdnYZelY,guid=a5db4ca68e107a48a04c8b8e51e3eef4
DISPLAY=:0.0
RUBY_VERSION=ruby-2.0.0-p247
XAUTHORITY=/home/erlkoenig/.Xauthority
COLORTERM=gnome-terminal
_=/usr/bin/env


Solution 1:[1]

Rails 4.0 needs RubyGem version 2.0.3, Just update your system by using following command

gem update --system 2.0.3

Solution 2:[2]

Run the following command:

sudo apt-get install ruby-dev zlib1g-dev liblzma-dev

Then,

sudo gem install rails

Solution 3:[3]

Just a follow up ... on different solution...

it may be that you are on a mac and rails cannot find the right compiler for c headers.

just install xcode from apps store / homebrew or go to terminal ...

$ xcode-select --install

complete the installation and agree on the licensing etc, then ...

$ sudo gem install rails

Solution 4:[4]

Got the same issue when installing rails with the command "gem install rails -v 5.1.2" on windows7, solved after installing "MSYS2 and MINGW development toolchain" (command ridk install then option 3)..It took a while to finish the installation and then i installed rails without any problem

Solution 5:[5]

For me this helped:

sudo apt-get install ruby-dev

Solution 6:[6]

This worked for me:

sudo ln -s /bin/mkdir /usr/bin/mkdir

I kept encountering this error when I ran gem install rails -v 5.2.0:

make: /usr/bin/mkdir: Command not found
make: *** [Makefile:199: .sitearchdir.-.racc.time] Error 127

make install failed, exit code 2

So I ran this command and it fixed it for me:

sudo ln -s /bin/mkdir /usr/bin/mkdir

Originally found: https://stackoverflow.com/a/64653052

Solution 7:[7]

Try

sudo gem install rails --version 2.0

to install libraries.

Solution 8:[8]

For anyone got the error:"Failed to build gem native extension”, while running sudo gem install rails, and it said somethings about "nokogiri".

It is possible because you are using the same ruby version as system is using (for mac user). The solution would be install RVM, use RVM to install another ruby version.

So now you have 2 Ruby versions on your machine, RVM will automatically switch to the newly installed version. now, you can run gem install rails without error and without sudo as well.

Solution 9:[9]

i'm running elementary os 5 and what i do is.

sudo gem update --system

and then try again.

sudo gem install rails

Solution 10:[10]

On Fedora 30, I ran into this problem "Failed to build gem native extension". The log error was "gcc: fatal error: cannot read spec file ‘/usr/lib/rpm/redhat/redhat-hardened-cc1’: No such file or directory". The solution was found here.

If you installed all the above, but the extensions would still not compile, you are probably running a Fedora image that misses redhat-rpm-config package. In that case gcc compiler would complain about one of the following:

gcc: error: conftest.c: No such file or directory
gcc: error: /usr/lib/rpm/redhat/redhat-hardened-cc1: No such file or directory
To solve this, simply run sudo dnf install redhat-rpm-config.

Solution 11:[11]

I could solve this way

rvm use ruby --install --default

and then try again.

gem install rails --no-document

Solution 12:[12]

I had the same error when installing rails, but I solved it by running the command: gem install rails without adding sudo.

Solution 13:[13]

While installing rails 7 when I ran the command

sudo gem install rails

I got the same errors. I tried several suggestions, but in vain. At last one suggestion from the web helped me. I have been asked to run following command :

sudo apt-get install libmagickwand-dev

and then try again installing rails. Here is the link to that site : https://askubuntu.com/questions/600068/cant-install-a-ruby-package-failed-to-build-gem-native-extension

It worked !!!