Question

After going step by step (installed both ruby and rubygems properly) to install watir-webdriver, I am facing following error:

ERROR:  Error installing watir-webdriver:
        ERROR: Failed to build gem native extension.

/usr/bin/ruby1.9.1 extconf.rb
<internal:lib/rubygems/custom_require>:29:in `require': no such file to load -- mkmf (LoadError)
        from <internal:lib/rubygems/custom_require>:29:in `require'
        from extconf.rb:4:in `<main>'

Please help me resolve this and do let me know what made this happened?

Answer 1

Not sure how you are installing ruby on your Ubuntu machine but may I recommend the Ruby Version Manager.

https://rvm.io/

this will allow you to install different versions of ruby on your machine and switch between them as well as gems etc.

here is a quick guide I wrote for installing watir webdriver in Ubuntu via RVM:

Ubuntu requires the use of a Ruby Version Manager. To do this we will need to first install both the Curl package and Git-core.

To do this use the following command:

sudo apt-get install curl git-core

Upon success we will need to download the Ruby Version Manager application. This application allows us to install multiple versions of ruby as well as switch between. It also provides a Gem manger. Recommended to Google to read up on the commands and features within RVM. To install RVM use the following:

bash -s stable < <(curl -s https://raw.github.com/wayneeseguin/rvm/master/binscripts/rvm-installer ) 

We can also install packages within RVM and we will require the use of openSSL:

rvm pkg install openssl

Then installing Ruby itself:

rvm install 1.9.3-p125 --with-openssl-dir=$rvm_path/usr

Best to test this is all working with:

irb

When all clear we can install the Gem, we need to install it within the RVM with the follow:

rvm do gem install watir-webdriver

If installed correctly we should be able to use watir to drive firefox which is already installed on ubuntu.