Difficulties installing mysql gem on Ubuntu - mysql

Question

I am trying to install the mysql 2.8.1 gem. I would be using it to build a Rails 2.0.2 application on Ubuntu 10.04. I would be using Ruby 1.8.7. I have installed the development dependencies(other gems). For some reasons I am unable to install it. I am not able to exactly figure out how to fix it. Please help!!
I get the following in the terminal when I try to install it:
mohnish#pc146724-desktop:~/Downloads$ sudo gem install mysql-2.8.1.gem
Building native extensions. This could take a while...
ERROR: Error installing mysql-2.8.1.gem:
ERROR: Failed to build gem native extension.
/usr/bin/ruby1.8 extconf.rb
checking for mysql_query() in -lmysqlclient... no
checking for main() in -lm... yes
checking for mysql_query() in -lmysqlclient... no
checking for main() in -lz... yes
checking for mysql_query() in -lmysqlclient... no
checking for main() in -lsocket... no
checking for mysql_query() in -lmysqlclient... no
checking for main() in -lnsl... yes
checking for mysql_query() in -lmysqlclient... no
checking for main() in -lmygcc... no
checking for mysql_query() in -lmysqlclient... no
*** extconf.rb failed ***
Could not create Makefile due to some reason, probably lack of
necessary libraries and/or headers. Check the mkmf.log file for more
details. You may need configuration options.
Provided configuration options:
--with-opt-dir
--without-opt-dir
--with-opt-include
--without-opt-include=${opt-dir}/include
--with-opt-lib
--without-opt-lib=${opt-dir}/lib
--with-make-prog
--without-make-prog
--srcdir=.
--curdir
--ruby=/usr/bin/ruby1.8
--with-mysql-config
--without-mysql-config
--with-mysql-dir
--without-mysql-dir
--with-mysql-include
--without-mysql-include=${mysql-dir}/include
--with-mysql-lib
--without-mysql-lib=${mysql-dir}/lib
--with-mysqlclientlib
--without-mysqlclientlib
--with-mlib
--without-mlib
--with-mysqlclientlib
--without-mysqlclientlib
--with-zlib
--without-zlib
--with-mysqlclientlib
--without-mysqlclientlib
--with-socketlib
--without-socketlib
--with-mysqlclientlib
--without-mysqlclientlib
--with-nsllib
--without-nsllib
--with-mysqlclientlib
--without-mysqlclientlib
--with-mygcclib
--without-mygcclib
--with-mysqlclientlib
--without-mysqlclientlib
Gem files will remain installed in /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/mysql-2.8.1 for inspection.
Results logged to /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/mysql-2.8.1/ext/mysql_api/gem_make.out
mohnish#pc146724-desktop:~/Downloads$
Thanks for your help!!

Answer 1

Try this and then install the mysql gem:
sudo apt-get install libmysqlclient-dev
If that's not sufficient try it like this
sudo apt-get install libmysqlclient-dev libmysqlclient16 ruby-dev

Answer 2

Try this and then install the mysql gem:
sudo apt-get install libmysqlclient-dev libmysqlclient16
This worked after then running sudo gem install mysql.
The documentation still doesn't install correctly (heaps of "No definition" errors, although thats not really a biggie.

Answer 3

You should do what the error message tells you: check the mkmf.log! Search for this file using find /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/ -name mkmf.log. Usually, this error message appears because you forgot to install the -dev package for the extension you were trying to install. So if you wanted to install the mysql gem, you probably forgot to install the libmysqlclient14-dev first. Do an apt-cache search | grep dev to find the appropriate packages.
plz check this for more information

Answer 4

In my case, I had the following error message:
An error occurred while installing mysql (2.8.1), and Bundler cannot
continue. Make sure that gem install mysql -v '2.8.1' succeeds
before bundling.
I tried: gem install mysql -v '2.8.1', and I got an error message similar to what you got.
I fixed it doing the following:
STEP (1): run this: sudo apt-get install libmysqlclient-dev
STEP (2): install mysql: gem install mysql -v 2.8.1
You should get a success message similar to this:
Successfully installed mysql-2.8.1 Installing ri documentation for
mysql-2.8.1 1 gem installed
I hope my answer helps.