I\'ve got a very strange message error. I think it\'s not coming from Ruby but from the unix system.
So, I have the following test file:
require File
As Simone points out the error is caused when you think you have a hash but really it a string. Its a genuine Ruby exception. I've had the exception due to a typo in my code. In your case I'm not sure of the cause but it could be something to do with a combination of Ruby / Rails versions.
You could try up/down grading Ruby or Rails to see if that fixes it.
For multiple Ruby versions I would highly recommended "RVM":http://rvm.beginrescueend.com/