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Asked: 2026-05-10T17:16:10+00:00

I am trying to install newgem on my linux box (sudo gem install newgem)

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I am trying to install newgem on my linux box (sudo gem install newgem) and i am getting the following error:

Building native extensions.  This could take a while... ERROR:  Error installing newgem: ERROR: Failed to build gem native extension.  /usr/bin/ruby1.8 extconf.rb install newgem extconf.rb:1:in `require': no such file to load -- mkmf (LoadError) from extconf.rb:1   Gem files will remain installed in /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/RedCloth-4.0.4 for inspection. Results logged to /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/RedCloth-4.0.4/ext/redcloth_scan/gem_make.out

What could the problem be?

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  1. mkmf is a Ruby module which generates Makefiles. It is supposed to be part of the standard Ruby install, but Debian (and derivatives) split it out into the ruby1.8-dev package.

    If you can’t find mkmf.rb in any of the directories outputted by ruby -e'print $:.join('\n')', then you should figure out what you need to install.

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