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Asked: 2026-05-31T20:35:51+00:00

I’m trying to set up my ror site on dreamhost, however, I’m using a

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I’m trying to set up my ror site on dreamhost, however, I’m using a gem (thumbs_up) that requires ruby gems version 1.7.0 and above.

Current version is: 

terebellum]$ gem -v
1.3.7

I tried running ” gem update –system” and I got this error:

gem update --system is disabled on Debian, because it will overwrite the content of the rubygems Debian package, and might break your Debian system in subtle ways. The Debian-supported way to update rubygems is through apt-get, using Debian official repositories.
If you really know what you are doing, you can still update rubygems by setting the REALLY_GEM_UPDATE_SYSTEM environment variable, but please remember that this is completely unsupported by Debian.

Please advise. See logs below.

Thanks

Limo

Installing thumbs_up (0.5.3) /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/rubygems/installer.rb:170:in `install': thumbs_up requires RubyGems version >= 1.7.0. Try 'gem update --system' to update RubyGems itself. (Gem::InstallError)
from /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/bundler-1.0.7/lib/bundler/source.rb:95:in `install'
from /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/bundler-1.0.7/lib/bundler/installer.rb:55:in `run'
from /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/bundler-1.0.7/lib/bundler/spec_set.rb:12:in `each'
from /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/bundler-1.0.7/lib/bundler/spec_set.rb:12:in `each'
from /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/bundler-1.0.7/lib/bundler/installer.rb:44:in `run'
from /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/bundler-1.0.7/lib/bundler/installer.rb:8:in `install'
from /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/bundler-1.0.7/lib/bundler/cli.rb:271:in `update'
from /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/bundler-1.0.7/lib/bundler/vendor/thor/task.rb:22:in `send'
from /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/bundler-1.0.7/lib/bundler/vendor/thor/task.rb:22:in `run'
from /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/bundler-1.0.7/lib/bundler/vendor/thor/invocation.rb: 118:in `invoke_task'
from /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/bundler-1.0.7/lib/bundler/vendor/thor.rb:246:in `dispatch'
from /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/bundler-1.0.7/lib/bundler/vendor/thor/base.rb:389:in `start'
from /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/bundler-1.0.7/bin/bundle:13
from /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/bin/bundle:19:in `load'
from /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/bin/bundle:19
[terebellum]$ gem update --system
ERROR: While executing gem ... (RuntimeError)
gem update --system is disabled on Debian, because it will overwrite the content of the rubygems Debian package, and might break your Debian system in subtle ways. The Debian-supported way to update rubygems is through apt-get, using Debian official repositories.
If you really know what you are doing, you can still update rubygems by setting the REALLY_GEM_UPDATE_SYSTEM environment variable, but please remember that this is completely unsupported by Debian.
[terebellum]$ gem -v
1.3.7
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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    I would recommend to install RVM (since Dreamhost wiki says it can be done) and Ruby version you need (say rvm install 1.8.7). Then any time you want to update Rubygems, you can run rvm rubygems 1.7.0 (see RubyGems CLI API)

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