Readline not working in rvm - Ubuntu 11.10

Question

I am using rvm on my ubyntu 11.10. My readline is not working, I tried ruby extconf.rb but it is not passed. Output is bellow:

$ ruby extconf.rb         


        

Answer 1

I've googled for a couple days, but no answers helps me, so my solution was:

Fully remove rvm How to remove rvm

Remove all ruby packages. First, find out which packages do you have:

dpkg -l | grep ruby

then make

sudo apt-get purge {PACKAGE}

where {PACKAGE} is package you want to remove ( for me there were ruby ruby1.8 ruby1.9.1 )

Then I made fresh installation of RVM Install RVM and installed ruby 1.9.2 with

rvm install 1.9.2

Now it should work!

Answer 2

For some reason I can't comment on @zzeroo's answer, but I want to draw attention to the fact that he's using

 --with-readline-dir=/usr/include/readline

instead of

--with-readline-dir=$rvm_path/usr

I was banging my head against the wall for a long time and changing this fixed it for me.

Answer 3

I got the solution:

Run the command

rvm requirements

It shows the requirements and dependencies. Install those and reinstall the ruby on rvm

rvm remove 1.9.2
rvm install 1.9.2

It works!

Answer 4

I tried everything, but it didn't work. I had to do rvm implode (after having all the requirements installed) and then rvm install 1.8.7; rvm install 1.9.3 and it wor

Answer 5

Same issue as here Readline errors prevent me running rails console

Under ubuntu you can use the system readline installation.

rvm uninstall ${YOURUBYVERSION}
sudo apt-get install libreadline-dev
rvm install ${YOURUBYVERSION} --with-readline-dir=/usr/include/readline

Substitute ${YOURUBYVERSION} with your desired ruby version.

Answer 6

Have you tried:

rvm pkg install readline

Then install ruby through RVM --with-readline-dir=$rvm_path/usr?

http://beginrescueend.com/packages/readline/

FWIW, I'd suggest giving rbenv + ruby-build a go, if you've never considered it. A lot less headaches than with RVM.