Nokogiri error on installation due to missing native extension - ruby-on-rails

Question

I have been trying to install Ruby on Rails based on these instructions. However, I am getting the following error upon running gem install rails -v 4.2.4:
Fetching: rack-1.6.4.gem (100%)
Successfully installed rack-1.6.4
Building native extensions. This could take a while...
ERROR: Error installing rails:
ERROR: Failed to build gem native extension.
/home/falak/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.2.3/bin/ruby -r ./siteconf20150909-22683-172bl7d.rb extconf.rb
checking if the C compiler accepts ... *** 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/falak/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.2.3/bin/$(RUBY_BASE_NAME)
--help
--clean
/home/falak/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.2.3/lib/ruby/2.2.0/mkmf.rb:456:in `try_do': The compiler failed to generate an executable file. (RuntimeError)
You have to install development tools first.
from /home/falak/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.2.3/lib/ruby/2.2.0/mkmf.rb:571:in `block in try_compile'
from /home/falak/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.2.3/lib/ruby/2.2.0/mkmf.rb:522:in `with_werror'
from /home/falak/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.2.3/lib/ruby/2.2.0/mkmf.rb:571:in `try_compile'
from extconf.rb:80:in `nokogiri_try_compile'
from extconf.rb:87:in `block in add_cflags'
from /home/falak/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.2.3/lib/ruby/2.2.0/mkmf.rb:619:in `with_cflags'
from extconf.rb:86:in `add_cflags'
from extconf.rb:337:in `<main>'
extconf failed, exit code 1
Gem files will remain installed in /home/falak/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.2.3/gems/nokogiri-1.6.6.2 for inspection.
Results logged to /home/falak/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.2.3/extensions/x86_64-linux/2.2.0/nokogiri-1.6.6.2/gem_make.out
I tried installing nokogiri using system libraries by running gem install nokogiri -v 1.6.2.1 -- --use-system-libraries, but I got the following error:
Building native extensions with: '--use-system-libraries'
This could take a while...
Building nokogiri using system libraries.
ERROR: Error installing nokogiri:
ERROR: Failed to build gem native extension.
/home/falak/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.2.3/bin/ruby -r ./siteconf20150909-23169-twqmu6.rb extconf.rb --use-system-libraries
Building nokogiri using system libraries.
*** extconf.rb failed ***
Could not create Makefile due to some reason, probably lack of necessary
libraries and/or headers. Check the mkmf.log file for more details. You may
need configuration options.
Provided configuration options:
--with-opt-dir
--without-opt-dir
--with-opt-include
--without-opt-include=${opt-dir}/include
--with-opt-lib
--without-opt-lib=${opt-dir}/lib
--with-make-prog
--without-make-prog
--srcdir=.
--curdir
--ruby=/home/falak/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.2.3/bin/$(RUBY_BASE_NAME)
--help
--clean
--use-system-libraries
--with-zlib-dir
--without-zlib-dir
--with-zlib-include
--without-zlib-include=${zlib-dir}/include
--with-zlib-lib
--without-zlib-lib=${zlib-dir}/lib
--with-xml2-dir
--without-xml2-dir
--with-xml2-include
--without-xml2-include=${xml2-dir}/include
--with-xml2-lib
--without-xml2-lib=${xml2-dir}/lib
--with-libxml-2.0-config
--without-libxml-2.0-config
--with-pkg-config
--without-pkg-config
/home/falak/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.2.3/lib/ruby/2.2.0/mkmf.rb:456:in `try_do': The compiler failed to generate an executable file. (RuntimeError)
You have to install development tools first.
from /home/falak/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.2.3/lib/ruby/2.2.0/mkmf.rb:541:in `try_link0'
from /home/falak/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.2.3/lib/ruby/2.2.0/mkmf.rb:556:in `try_link'
from /home/falak/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.2.3/lib/ruby/2.2.0/mkmf.rb:637:in `try_ldflags'
from /home/falak/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.2.3/lib/ruby/2.2.0/mkmf.rb:1780:in `pkg_config'
from extconf.rb:338:in `<main>'
extconf failed, exit code 1
Gem files will remain installed in /home/falak/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.2.3/gems/nokogiri-1.6.2.1 for inspection.
Results logged to /home/falak/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.2.3/extensions/x86_64-linux/2.2.0/nokogiri-1.6.2.1/gem_make.out

Answer 1

Try installing the libgmp-dev library
apt-get install libgmp-dev

Answer 2

Using RVM to install rails in ruby 2.2.3 has been a major problem among other users as well. For now, you can still get rails 4.2.4 in ruby 2.2.2.
Try:
rvm install 2.2.2
rvm --default use 2.2.2
gem install rails
this should still work. RVM for some reason does not install the right headers in 2.2.3 for you to build the gems.

Answer 3

For OS X users: remember update the Xcode command line developer tools, this is the problem for the 99% OS X users. xcode-select --install

Answer 4

You can try this amazing solution for this
The solution is:
sudo apt-get install ruby-dev
Or, if that doesn't work, depending on your ruby version, run something like:
sudo apt-get install ruby1.9.1-dev
Should fix your problem.
Still not working? Try the following after installing ruby-dev:
sudo apt-get install make

Answer 5

This solution is for nokogiri error:
sudo apt-get install ruby-dev

Answer 6

As the error says check in the mkmf.log file. There you'll find the missing header files.
In my case I was missing zlib.h. The error was:
The #include file "zlib.h" is not found
So to fix it:
sudo apt-get install zlib1g-dev
To find required dev packages, one can use apt-file
$ apt-file search zlib.h
zlib1g-dev: /usr/include/zlib.h