Mongrel on Solaris 10, no C compiler

I've installed Coolstack's Ruby package and some gems on a T2000 box, including Mongrel and its dependencies. However, when I tried to start Mongrel it failed with an error:

/opt/csw/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems/custom_require.rb:21:
in `require__': no such file to load -- http11 (LoadError)

It took me a while to figure-out what was wrong because `gem install mongrel' shows a false success message:

Successfully installed mongrel, version 1.0.1

Searching around, some threads pointed to a problem with rbconfig.rb, but this was not my problem; there was a library missing:

# ls -al
/opt/coolstack/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/mongrel-1.0.1/lib/http11.so
/opt/coolstack/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/mongrel-1.0.1/lib/http11.so: No such file or directory

This box doesn't have make, a C compiler or other build tools so, obviously, the installation wasn't able to create http11.so. I just wish it had failed instead of giving me false hope.

I got around it by building it on another machine with the same architecture (sparc, in my case) and compiling tools:

1. Copy to your build host the directory /opt/coolstack/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/mongrel-1.0.1/ext/http11
2. To the same destination, copy /opt/coolstack/lib/ruby/1.8/sparc-solaris2.10/*.h and /opt/coolstack/lib/libruby.so
   
3. On the build host, under the http11 directory, run `make'.
4. You should now have a http11.so on the build host. Copy it to the original machine under /opt/coolstack/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/mongrel-1.0.1/lib

Another option, if you have root access to the build host, is simpy installing mongrel over there and then copying the http11.so library over to the other host. YMMV.

This guy has a neat guide to installing Mongrel on a shared host. It may also help you. G'luck.

Foundry: the unhelpful company

I don't know why some companies insist on requiring logins to download user manuals for their products. What good is the manual of a ServerIron XL to me if I don't own an appliance or am not planning to buy one?

This is what you get from Foundry if you, like me, try to quickly study their equipment in order to do some network planning:

Thank you for registering for the Foundry KP. Unfortunately we are unable to complete your registration at this time. A valid support contract is required to access this valuable tool and our records indicate that your contract has expired. If this is a mistake please notify us as soon as possible to have the issue corrected.

We value you as a customer and as such we will notify your local account team and they will be contacting you shortly regarding obtaining a new support contract for your systems.

That translates to: give us more money or else we don't really care about you - we're just saying that because it sounds nice.

In time: my company does own Foundry appliances. Even if I knew where to get all the information they are requesting me, you still have to wait up to 48 hours for an account. In this day and age it is absolutely pathetic.

[UPDATE 10h53]: even if a company is unhelpful I'm glad to see there are helpful people within it. David White, systems engineering manager, was kind enough to send me the manual I needed. Thanks.