Ubuntu – How to install ruby 1.8.7 back on Ubuntu 14.04 after upgrade

14.04rubysoftware installation

Upgrading to 14.04 removed my ruby 1.8.7. I need it back. 🙂 Badly. Some old projects still rely on it.

Gems seems to be left untouched.

How do I install ruby 1.8 back while still keeping Ubuntu 14.04 on my computer? Any PPA's to add? I tried compiling from source but got a bunch of errors.

Best Answer

I did this by adding the saucy (13.10) repositories back to my sources.list file.

sudo -H gedit /etc/apt/sources.list
Add deb http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ saucy main restricted after the first set.
Save the file and exit the editor.
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install ruby1.8
sudo apt-get install rubygems

Probably isn't the best way, but it seemed to work for me. I had an older project with compass/sass that was failing on ruby 1.9 but now works as before.

I noticed that installing ruby 1.8 also installed a package called ruby-switch. Might be able to switch between 1.8 and 1.9 with this utility, although I haven't played with it and RVM is probably a better solution for switching ruby versions.

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As far as I'm aware, Rubygems on Ubuntu and Debian use /var/lib/gems/$ruby_version as their installation root (to keep gems installed via apt, and manually-installed gems cleanly separated).

In your case, since you're using Ruby 1.9, the executables should be installed in /var/lib/gems/1.9/bin. Try adding something like this into your ~/.bashrc file:

export PATH="/var/lib/gems/1.9/bin:$PATH"

Ubuntu – How to uninstall Ruby 1.8.7 and install Ruby 1.9.2

Is there a problem with having both installed? And using the versions from the repositories? I would install ruby 1.9.2 with:

sudo apt-get install ruby1.9.1-full

And then update the "alternatives" system to use ruby 1.9:

$ sudo update-alternatives --config ruby
There are 2 choices for the alternative ruby (providing /usr/bin/ruby).

  Selection    Path                Priority   Status
------------------------------------------------------------
* 0            /usr/bin/ruby1.8     50        auto mode
  1            /usr/bin/ruby1.8     50        manual mode
  2            /usr/bin/ruby1.9.1   10        manual mode

Press enter to keep the current choice[*], or type selection number: 2
update-alternatives: using /usr/bin/ruby1.9.1 to provide /usr/bin/ruby (ruby) in manual mode.
$ ruby --version
ruby 1.9.2p290 (2011-07-09 revision 32553) [x86_64-linux]

This will also set the alternatives for erb, irb, rdoc, ri, testrb and the man page. However you need to update the gem command separately:

$ sudo update-alternatives --config gem
There are 2 choices for the alternative gem (providing /usr/bin/gem).

  Selection    Path               Priority   Status
------------------------------------------------------------
* 0            /usr/bin/gem1.8     180       auto mode
  1            /usr/bin/gem1.8     180       manual mode
  2            /usr/bin/gem1.9.1   10        manual mode

Press enter to keep the current choice[*], or type selection number: 2
update-alternatives: using /usr/bin/gem1.9.1 to provide /usr/bin/gem (gem) in manual mode.

I know, it is confusingly called ruby1.9.1 rather than 1.9.2, some upstream debian packaging thing.

Best Answer

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