From: Steve Downie <s.d@...>
Date: 2009-12-04T06:26:50+09:00
Subject: Re: Ruby 1.9.1 gem command - can't find user for 500

On Fri, 4 Dec 2009 04:23:13 +0900
Ryan Davis <ryand-ruby@zenspider.com> wrote:

> 
> On Dec 3, 2009, at 10:51 , Steve Downie wrote:
> 
> > Has anyone else encountered this error or can suggest a way to correct it? 
> > These errors occur when running the gem command under ruby 1.9.1.
> > The same error occurs with a different user #(0) when run as root.
> > Under 1.8.6 and 1.8.7, no error occurs.
> > 
> > This is a fresh version of ruby built on a 64 bit machine
> > OS: Linux - Fedora Core 11
> > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> > bash-/ruby-1.9.1-p243$ ruby -v
> > ruby 1.9.1p243 (2009-07-16 revision 24175) [i686-linux]
> > bash-/ruby-1.9.1-p243$ gem install rake
> > ERROR:  While executing gem ... (ArgumentError)
> >    can't find user for 500
> > bash-/ruby-1.9.1-p243$ gem list
> > 
> > *** LOCAL GEMS ***
> > 
> > ERROR:  While executing gem ... (ArgumentError)
> >    can't find user for 500
> 
> no clue. run with --debug and/or --backtrace
> 
> that said... 1.9 ships with rake, so there is no reason to install it.
> 
> 
> 

Ryan,

OK. "gem install rake" was a bad choice, since it was included in 1.9.1. The same result happened with every other gem I attempted to install.
The debug output indicated that there were library issues.

I reinstalled multiruby (http://blog.robseaman.com/2008/12/20/switching-between-ruby-1-8-1-9-with-multiruby) and the problem seems to have gone away. I wish I had more time to explore the "can't find user for xxx" message, but I believe it to be a side effect related to 32/64 bit library issues. 

Now I just have to reinstall gems to all 3 ruby versions... 

BTW, thanks for the laughs at the "Worst. Ideas. Ever." presentation at RubyConf.