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“** [out :: myserver] deploy is not in the sudoers file.  This incident will be reported.”  — Solution is here.

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Andrew Development Capistrano, LAMP, Linux, Rails, Ruby on Rails, Ubuntu

The request was simple – how do you change the header (or title) for a validation message.  Using nested resources, I ended up with a weird message:

3 errors prohibited this page[contact attributes] from being  saved

Not very user friendly.   So, I hit Google, blogs and IRC.  So, here the solution I discovered.

<%= error_messages_for ‘c’, :header_message => “Please correct the errors below:”%>

Since this was part of a fields_for block,  I had to add this to my controller method:

@c = @section.contact

Andrew Development Development, LAMP, Rails, Ruby, Ruby on Rails

Notes on setting up apache for multiple web sites:

In the /etc/apache2 directory you have two directories:
- sites-available
- sites-enabled

The sites-available directory contains configuration files for each website.
The sites-available contains links to the configuration file in the sites-available directory.  It does not contain the file itself.

The mistake that is made at times is that *all* configs are placed in one file – default.

So, for a domain name like domain.com you would create a file called domain.com in the sites-available directory with the following:

NameVirtualHost *:80
<VirtualHost *:80>
DocumentRoot /var/www/domain
ServerName www.domain.com
Server Alias domain.com
</VirtualHost>

you would do:  /ln -s /etc/apache2/sites-available/domain.com /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/domain.com

OR

a2ensite domain.com (from within the sites-available) directory.

finally:  /etc/init.d/apache2 reload

So, in a nutshell — create a file per domain name — use ServerAlias to cover www.domain.com and domain.com.

Andrew Hosting Apache, LAMP, Linux, Open Source, Server Admin, Ubuntu, WordPress

So this:

sudo gem install -r libxml-ruby

Gives you this:

ERROR:  Error installing libxml-ruby:
ERROR: Failed to build gem native extension.

/usr/bin/ruby1.8 extconf.rb
checking for socket() in -lsocket… no
checking for gethostbyname() in -lnsl… yes
checking for atan() in -lm… no
checking for atan() in -lm… yes
checking for inflate() in -lz… yes
checking for iconv_open() in -liconv… no
checking for libiconv_open() in -liconv… no
checking for libiconv_open() in -llibiconv… no
checking for iconv_open() in -llibiconv… no
checking for iconv_open() in -lc… yes
checking for xmlParseDoc() in -lxml2… no
checking for xmlParseDoc() in -llibxml2… no
checking for xmlParseDoc() in -lxml2… 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-iconv-dir
–without-iconv-dir
–with-iconv-include
–without-iconv-include=${iconv-dir}/include
–with-iconv-lib
–without-iconv-lib=${iconv-dir}/lib
–with-zlib-dir
–without-zlib-dir
–with-zlib-include
–without-zlib-include=${zlib-dir}/include
–with-zlib-lib
–without-zlib-lib=${zlib-dir}/lib
–with-socketlib
–without-socketlib
–with-nsllib
–without-nsllib
–with-mlib
–without-mlib
–with-mlib
–without-mlib
–with-zlib
–without-zlib
–with-iconvlib
–without-iconvlib
–with-iconvlib
–without-iconvlib
–with-libiconvlib
–without-libiconvlib
–with-libiconvlib
–without-libiconvlib
–with-clib
–without-clib
–with-xml2-config
–without-xml2-config
–with-xml2-dir
–without-xml2-dir
–with-xml2-include
–without-xml2-include=${xml2-dir}/include
–with-xml2-lib
–without-xml2-lib=${xml2-dir}/lib
–with-xml2lib
–without-xml2lib
–with-libxml2lib
–without-libxml2lib
–with-xml2lib
–without-xml2lib
extconf failure: need libxml2.

Install the library or try one of the following options to extconf.rb:

–with-xml2-config=/path/to/xml2-config
–with-xml2-dir=/path/to/libxml2
–with-xml2-lib=/path/to/libxml2/lib
–with-xml2-include=/path/to/libxml2/include

So, do this:

sudo apt-get install libxml2-dev

And this again:

sudo gem install -r libxml-ruby

Andrew Development Gems, LAMP, Open Source, Rails, Ruby, Ruby on Rails, Ubuntu

One of the frustrating things about Rails is coming up to speed with everyone else.  A very simple task can be difficult, just because you haven’t done a particular task yet.  Well, that’s ok.  That’s what the community is for.  So, I’m sharing those little things here.

This one is how to install will_paginate.  Not so much how to install it – but how to add a new source to the gem sources.

gem sources

do you see http://gemcutter.org?  if so, skip the next command

gem sources -a http://gemcutter.org

sudo gem install will_paginate

Andrew Development Development, LAMP, Linux, Open Source, Ruby, Ruby on Rails, Ubuntu

So, you’re on a VPS with 128MB of RAM or doing development on your Linux workstation and you don’t want MySQL to hog all of the memory — here is what you do:

sudo cp /etc/mysql/my.cnf /etc/mysql/my.cnf.backup
sudo cp /usr/share/doc/mysql-server-5.1/examples/my-small.cnf /etc/mysql/my.cnf
sudo /etc/init.d/mysql restart

** verify the version # on the second command line.

Andrew Development LAMP, Linux, mysql, Open Source, Ruby, Ruby on Rails, Server Admin, Ubuntu

Instructions for Installing WordPress
——————————————————————————————————

# Setup Sources (some VPS vendors block sources)
vi /etc/apt/sources.list

(remove all # in front of all sources)
To save in vi: :qw
To exit without saving: :q!

# Do updates, upgrades, and install essentials
apt-get update
apt-get upgrade
apt-get dist-upgrade
apt-get install build-essential
apt-get install linux-headers-$(uname -r)

# Install a friendly editor if you are not familiar with VI
apt-get install jed

# Now for some security (iptables will probably be installed, running command doesn’t hurt and verifies that it is)
# The config below allows for FTP, SMTP, POP, IMAP, HTTP, HTTPS and SSH
# Adjust according to your needs
apt-get install iptables
iptables -F
iptables -P INPUT ACCEPT
iptables -P OUTPUT ACCEPT
iptables -P FORWARD ACCEPT
iptables -A INPUT -i lo -j ACCEPT
iptables -A INPUT -p icmp –icmp-type any -j ACCEPT
iptables -A INPUT -m state –state ESTABLISHED,RELATED -j ACCEPT
iptables -A INPUT -m state –state NEW -m tcp -p tcp –dport 22 -j ACCEPT
iptables -A INPUT -m state –state NEW -m tcp -p tcp –dport 25 -j ACCEPT
iptables -A INPUT -m state –state NEW -m tcp -p tcp –dport 80 -j ACCEPT
iptables -A INPUT -m state –state NEW -m tcp -p tcp –dport 110 -j ACCEPT
iptables -A INPUT -m state –state NEW -m tcp -p tcp –dport 143 -j ACCEPT
iptables -A INPUT -m state –state NEW -m tcp -p tcp –dport 443 -j ACCEPT
iptables -A INPUT -m state –state NEW -m tcp -p tcp –dport 993 -j ACCEPT
iptables -A INPUT -m state –state NEW -m tcp -p tcp –dport 995 -j ACCEPT
iptables -A INPUT -m state –state NEW -m tcp -p tcp –dport 10000 -j ACCEPT
iptables -A INPUT -j REJECT –reject-with icmp-host-prohibited
iptables -A FORWARD -j REJECT –reject-with icmp-host-prohibited

iptables-save > /etc/network/iptables
printf ‘#!/bin/sh\niptables-restore < /etc/network/iptables\n’ > /etc/network/if-pre-up.d/iptables
chmod 754 /etc/network/if-pre-up.d/iptables

# Deny Hosts is a nifty little program that tracks people who try to brute force your root account
apt-get install denyhosts

#Location of config files:
#config: /etc/denyhosts.conf
#datafile: /etc/hosts.deny

# This installs the lamp stack
tasksel install lamp-server

# And now for Wordpress
cd ~/
mkdir downloads
cd downloads
wget http://wordpress.org/latest.tar.gz
mkdir /var/www/wordpress
cd /var/www/
chown -R www-data:www-data wordpress
chmod -R -v 755 wordpress
tar -zxvf ~/downloads/latest.tar.gz –directory=/var/www
cd /var/www
mv wordpress myblog
cp /etc/apache2/sites-available/default /etc/apache2/sites-available/default.org
jed /etc/apache2/sites-available/default

#add the following section to the top
#-START——————————————
NameVirtualHost *:80
<VirtualHost *:80>
DocumentRoot /var/www/myblog
ServerName www.myblog.com
</VirtualHost>
#-END——————————————–
/etc/init.d/apache2 restart

#Setup a database for WordPress
#Change command below according to your needs
mysqladmin -u root -p create wordpress-myblog
mysql -u root -p
CREATE USER ‘wp-myblog’@'localhost’ IDENTIFIED BY ‘NiftyPasswordGoesHere’;
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON *.* TO ‘wp-myblog’@'localhost’ WITH GRANT OPTION;
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
USE wordpress-myblog;

#Finally point your domain DNS records to your IP address and complete setup.

Andrew Hosting, How-to Apache, Blog, LAMP, mysql, Open Source, Server Admin, VPS, WordPress

I’m working on one of my first apps and I discover that the map.root :controller => does not work.  I verified the controller was spelled correctly, but it kept taking me to the Ruby On Rails intro page.

Solution: delete the index.html out of /public/

Andrew Development LAMP, Open Source, Ruby, Ruby on Rails, Solution

The instructions have been updated here.

Here are the steps I use to install Ruby on Rails on my VPS (www.rackspacecloud.com) a Ubuntu  9.04 (jaunty)

apt-get update
apt-get upgrade
apt-get install build-essential
aptitude install ruby1.8-dev ruby1.8 ri1.8 rdoc1.8 irb1.8 libreadline-ruby1.8 libruby1.8 libopenssl-ruby sqlite3 libsqlite3-ruby1.8
aptitude install ruby build-essential libopenssl-ruby ruby1.8-dev
apt-get install sqlite3 libsqlite3-ruby1.8
apt-get install rubygems
ln -s /usr/bin/gem1.8 /usr/local/bin/gem
ln -s /usr/bin/ruby1.8 /usr/local/bin/ruby
ln -s /usr/bin/rdoc1.8 /usr/local/bin/rdoc
ln -s /usr/bin/ri1.8 /usr/local/bin/ri
ln -s /usr/bin/irb1.8 /usr/local/bin/irb
export PATH=$PATH:/var/lib/gems/1.8/bin
gem install -v=2.3.4 rails
gem install rubygems-update
update_rubygems
gem install rails
gem install -v=2.3.4 rails
export PATH=$PATH:/var/lib/gems/1.8/bin

Andrew Development 9.04, Development, Install, jaunty, LAMP, Linux, Rails, Ruby on Rails, Ubuntu, VPS

So, I’ve made the decision to write my apps in Ruby on Rails.  Now what?

Here are the books I chose to start:

Agile Web Development with Rails, Third Edition

Programming Ruby 1.9: The Pragmatic Programmers’ Guide (Facets of Ruby)

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Additionally I found an online class at a reasonable rate:

Introduction to Ruby on Rails – I highly recommend the class.  It  gives you an opportunity to ask the “do I understand this correctly?” or “compared to C#, is this the same?” type of questions.

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There are some other helpful resources:

Learning Rails – a great site with resources on learning Ruby.

PeepCode Screen Casts -tutorials on Ruby.

Ruby Mine – an IDE for Ruby.  (I’m downloading to try it out and will be writing a review on it later.)

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My Lab in the Cloud

So, I’ve set aside a budget for all of this and one thing that I included was a VPS (virtual private server).  Now, I know what you’re thinking, isn’t this a bit overboard for learning RoR?  Perhaps, but I found a provider that offers cloud hosting for as little as $0.015 an hour.  Roughly, that’s about $10 a month.

My production VPS is hosted at another site, which I pay about $30 a month.  It hosts several blogs (including this one) and my email server.

Andrew Development Development, LAMP, Open Source, Rails, Ruby, Ruby on Rails