Installing Ruby

Before running the Virtual Wiring System, you need to have Ruby running on your host. Ruby is a powerful general purpose programming language popular when developing web sites. It's a modern language that is generally quite easy for programmers and non-programmers to read. The Virtual Wiring system software is almost entirely written in Ruby.

To see if you have Ruby installed on your host system, open a command window and run ruby -v at the command line. If your system doesn't return something like (your release names and numbers will likely be different):

ruby 1.9.3p125 (2012-02-16 revision 34643) [x86_64-darwin11.3.0]

you need to install Ruby on your system.

Simple Installation

The simplest way to install Ruby on your system is by running the apt-get utility. apt-get is installed by default on most Linux systems, but not on Macs. The following will update and install the latest Ruby on your system.

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install ruby ruby-dev

Install the bundler utility as a Ruby gem:

sudo gem install bundler -N

Installation Using RVM

If the simple installation does not work for you, or the Ruby that gets installed on your system is too old, you can install Ruby using the RVM system. RVM allows you to select and install a wide variety of Ruby systems (and more). To install RVM, go to the www.rvm.io website and follow the instructions.

Once you have RVM installed, you can install a Ruby system. To install Ruby 1.9.3, enter the command:

rvm install 1.9.3
rvm use 1.9.3 --default
rvm rubygems current

Install the bundler utility as a Ruby gem:

gem install bundler -N

If Your Installation Doesn't Work

Here are some things to look for.

• If the installation is successful, but the "ruby" command fails

  • Check your /usr/bin directory to see if there is another Ruby file there. If there is a /usr/bin/ruby1.9.3 file for example, this is probably your Ruby installation. Try running the ruby1.9.3 command with a -v option. If it works, symlink the file to a link named "ruby" (e.g. sudo ln -s /usr/bin/ruby1.9.3 /user/bin/ruby).

• If you get error messages during installation

  • Make sure your host has internet connectivity.
    
  • If the apt-get utility fails, install Ruby using RVM.

• If your Ruby or gem installation fails and complains about protections, you may need to install things as root. Try prefacing your commands with sudo (e.g. sudo apt-get ...). sudo ("super user do") will ask you for your password and then run the command that follows as root.