Why Does Ruby on Debian Blow? (Was: [Rails] Mongrel 3.15, Ubuntu and Park place (S3))

[zedshaw at zedshaw.com]

Hey,

What you're experiencing is the annoying habit of Debian to not install
half of every package you intend to use.  By default it installs only a
bare ruby carved out of the main source, and then separates just about
everything else you need to compile extensions.  Since a *huge* number of
gems and software for ruby requires a compiling extensions, this means you
can't use just about anything on the internet without installing a billion
other debian packages.

I'm sure there's some information on the other 100,000,000,000 debian
packages you'll need in addition to ruby just to use ruby.  Make sure you
remember to install the following as well:

1) letters-a-c, letter-d-e, etc.  You need these to type.
2) tcpip-header-bytes-0-40, etc.  Without this you're missing tcp/ip.
3) gcc-headers, gcc-compiler, gcc-preprocessor, gcc-assembler,
gcc-backend-c, gcc-backend-c++, gcc-documentat-page-1,
gcc-documentation-page2 and lots of other gcc packages.
4) Then anything that says ruby in it, just in case.

And always remember, the people doing debian know a lot more about how
ruby works than you'll ever know, and I'm sure they are chock full of
explanations (but not solutions) to nearly every complaint leveled at
them.  See, that's what smart people do, they explain rather than listen. 
I know because I'm smart and I love explaining things to people.

Can anyone tell I'm incredibly annoyed at the state of the debian
packages?  Is there a way to get this fixed for good?  Can we *please*
*always* ***always*** install the gear needed to compile new extensions
and install any gem?  That'd be super fresh for sure.

Hell, at least a damn message that says, "If you plan to do anything with
anything related to ruby ever then you probably want to install [INSERT
200 PACKAGES HERE] as well."

That'd be awesome.  Thanks.

Zed A. Shaw
http://www.zedshaw.com/
http://mongrel.rubyforge.org/

P.S. I'm going to write up what you need to do and put it on the Mongrel
site.  Basically you need to install a few more packages and make sure
that the http11 extension gets created.


> Hello. I installed under Ubuntu (Dapper) Park Place. I followed the
> instructions given at the RedHanded site. I get the following mongrel
> error when launching the application:
>
> ** Please login in with `admin' and password `pass at word1'
> ** You should change the default password or delete the admin at
> soonest
> chance!/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/mongrel-0.3.12.5/lib/mongrel.rb:584:in
> `register': undefined method `resolve' for nil:Mongrel::URIClassifier
> (NoMethodError)
>         from
> /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/mongrel-0.3.12.5/lib/mongrel.rb:720:in
> `uri'
>         from /usr/local/lib/site_ruby/1.8/parkplace.rb:45:in `cloaker_'
>         from
> /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/mongrel-0.3.12.5/lib/mongrel.rb:703:in
> `listener'
>         from /usr/local/lib/site_ruby/1.8/parkplace.rb:44:in `cloaker_'
>         from
> /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/mongrel-0.3.12.5/lib/mongrel.rb:661:in
> `initialize'
>         from /usr/local/lib/site_ruby/1.8/parkplace.rb:43:in `serve'
>         from /usr/bin/parkplace:28
>
> I did some research attempting to fix this issue, but without luck.
> Any ideas form the mongrel/parkplace people?
>
> Thank you.
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