edit:[FIXED] The problem was that I had it installed already, but didn’t know, and

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Asked: June 18, 20262026-06-18T01:15:03+00:00 2026-06-18T01:15:03+00:00

edit:[FIXED] The problem was that I had it installed already, but didn’t know, and

0

edit:[FIXED]
The problem was that I had it installed already, but didn’t know, and tried to install from source. This created two versions and the gem didn’t know which to use. I fixed it by going to the downloaded source and running

sudo make uninstall

Then I ran gem install rmagick again and it worked!

[ORIGINAL PROBLEM]

I’m trying to install the rmagick gem like in this railscast. Here’s a snippet of what I put in my gemfile:

 gem 'rmagick'
 gem 'carrierwave'

And when I run bundle install I get the following output:

Installing rmagick (2.13.1) with native extensions 
Gem::Installer::ExtensionBuildError: ERROR: Failed to build gem native extension.

        /home/techusb/.rbenv/versions/1.9.3-p125/bin/ruby extconf.rb 
checking for Ruby version >= 1.8.5... yes
extconf.rb:128: Use RbConfig instead of obsolete and deprecated Config.
checking for cc... yes
checking for Magick-config... yes

Warning: Found more than one ImageMagick installation. This could cause problems at runtime.
         /usr/local/bin/Magick-config reports version 6.8.0 Q16 is installed in /usr/local
         /usr/bin/Magick-config reports version 1.3.12 is installed in /usr
Using 6.8.0 Q16 from /usr/local.

checking for ImageMagick version >= 6.4.9... yes
checking for HDRI disabled version of ImageMagick... yes
checking for stdint.h... *** 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=/home/techusb/.rbenv/versions/1.9.3-p125/bin/ruby
/home/techusb/.rbenv/versions/1.9.3-p125/lib/ruby/1.9.1/mkmf.rb:381:in `try_do': The compiler failed to generate an executable file. (RuntimeError)
You have to install development tools first.
    from /home/techusb/.rbenv/versions/1.9.3-p125/lib/ruby/1.9.1/mkmf.rb:506:in `try_cpp'
    from /home/techusb/.rbenv/versions/1.9.3-p125/lib/ruby/1.9.1/mkmf.rb:931:in `block in have_header'
    from /home/techusb/.rbenv/versions/1.9.3-p125/lib/ruby/1.9.1/mkmf.rb:790:in `block in checking_for'
    from /home/techusb/.rbenv/versions/1.9.3-p125/lib/ruby/1.9.1/mkmf.rb:284:in `block (2 levels) in postpone'
    from /home/techusb/.rbenv/versions/1.9.3-p125/lib/ruby/1.9.1/mkmf.rb:254:in `open'
    from /home/techusb/.rbenv/versions/1.9.3-p125/lib/ruby/1.9.1/mkmf.rb:284:in `block in postpone'
    from /home/techusb/.rbenv/versions/1.9.3-p125/lib/ruby/1.9.1/mkmf.rb:254:in `open'
    from /home/techusb/.rbenv/versions/1.9.3-p125/lib/ruby/1.9.1/mkmf.rb:280:in `postpone'
    from /home/techusb/.rbenv/versions/1.9.3-p125/lib/ruby/1.9.1/mkmf.rb:789:in `checking_for'
    from /home/techusb/.rbenv/versions/1.9.3-p125/lib/ruby/1.9.1/mkmf.rb:930:in `have_header'
    from extconf.rb:193:in `<main>'


Gem files will remain installed in /home/techusb/.rbenv/versions/1.9.3-p125/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/rmagick-2.13.1 for inspection.
Results logged to /home/techusb/.rbenv/versions/1.9.3-p125/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/rmagick-2.13.1/ext/RMagick/gem_make.out
An error occurred while installing rmagick (2.13.1), and Bundler cannot continue.
Make sure that `gem install rmagick -v '2.13.1'` succeeds before bundling.

Regarding this line:

The compiler failed to generate an executable file. (RuntimeError)
You have to install development tools first.

I think I’ve exhausted all the information on how to fix this error via google/stackoverflow. I already tried installing the development packages and such. Not sure where to go from here. Any help greatly appreciated.