<em>Update 2010-03-25: Bumped to RubyGems version 1.3.6.</em>
<em>Update 2009-02-19: Bumped to RubyGems version 1.3.1 and MySQL 5 libraries. This guide now works for all recent version of Ubuntu and Debian. Enjoy!</em>
Installing Ruby on Rails on your Ubuntu box is not always as easy as it seems. Here's a comprehensive overview of the steps you need to take. Mostly you'll be using apt-get and gems, so it's not all that hard after all.
This method was tested on both Dapper and Edgy systems. It may work on other Ubuntu releases as well. It's also possible that it works on Debian.
Besides Rails, I'll also be install mysql and sqlite3 support.
You may now check what version of Ruby you have by running `ruby -v`. It's just for your information.
<h3>2. Install Ruby Gems</h3>
Surf to <ahref="http://rubyforge.org/frs/?group_id=126">http://rubyforge.org/frs/?group_id=126</a> and download the latest available gems pacakge in tgz format. (You may also use the zip if you feel comfortable.)
That's it! Well, almost. You probably want some other things as well.
<h3>4. Install development tools</h3>
Before you continue, stop a moment to install some development tools. These tools are probably needed to compile and install the gems we are going to install next.
You probably want MySQL Ruby support. The MySQL code in Rails sucks (no offence), but the Ruby code is much better. You should install it. Rails will notice that it's available and use it.
You have to choose what version you want to install. Enter the number corresponding with the latest version that is tagged 'ruby'. Installing win32 stuff on linux is generally not a good thing.
<h3>SQLite 3</h3>
For SQLite 3 you need to install some packages before installing the gem.