How to fix 'Failed to build gem native extension' when installing jekyll

Written by Alexander • on March 22, 2014

I came across this error when I tried to install jekyll on my ubuntu laptop for testing out jekyll bootstrap locally

shell-session

$ sudo gem install jekyll
Building native extensions.  This could take a while...
ERROR:  Error installing jekyll:
  ERROR: Failed to build gem native extension.

        /usr/bin/ruby1.9.1 extconf.rb
/usr/lib/ruby/1.9.1/rubygems/custom_require.rb:36:in `require': cannot load such file -- mkmf (LoadError)
  from /usr/lib/ruby/1.9.1/rubygems/custom_require.rb:36:in `require'
  from extconf.rb:1:in `<main>'


Gem files will remain installed in /var/lib/gems/1.9.1/gems/fast-stemmer-1.0.2 for inspection.
Results logged to /var/lib/gems/1.9.1/gems/fast-stemmer-1.0.2/ext/gem_make.out

Apparently this is due to a missing ruby-dev-package according to this issue: https://github.com/jekyll/jekyll-help/issues/209.

And this is how you fix it:

shell-session

sudo apt-get install ruby-dev

About the author

Hi! My name is Alexander, and I am a creative frontender, specializing in UX, accessibility, universal design, frontend-architecture, node and design systems. I am passionate with open source projects and love to dabble with new emerging technologies related to frontend. With over 26 years of frontend experience, I have earned the right to be called a veteran. I am a lover of life, technologist at heart. If I am not coding, I am cooking and I love whisky and cigars. Oh, and coffee, I LOVE coffee!

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