From: Bret Weinraub <bretweinraub@...>
Date: 2010-03-09T21:01:45+09:00
Subject: Re: All attempts to install gems hang

Magnus Hjelmblom wrote:
> Bret Weinraub wrote:
>> Basically this Ubuntu instance was running in Virtual Box on a Win7 
>> machine.  Now virtual box (like a lot of virtualization software) 
>> generally defaults to NAT (network address translation) for network 
>> connectivity.
>> 
>> Switching to "Bridged" on the interface pretty much cleared up the 
>> problem; even though heavy network users like "apt-get" functioned just 
>> fine.  Whatever flakiness exists in the network only manifested itself 
>> with "gem install".  Bridged gives you a real address on your network, 
>> instead of your packets being rewritten by the "host" machine.
>> 
>> I've seen of this with some VPN software; just will not function over a 
>> NAT-ed interface.  Switch to bridged, and its all good.
>> 
>> Probably should be a bug report for rubygems; it won't run off a NAT-ed 
>> VM.
> 
> So, for me (and my students) who can't switch to bridged due to the 
> university's security policies, there basically is no solution? Wow. 
> This is killing me, new troubles every time I give this course. I 
> seriously must reconsider using Rails.
> 
> I suppose I could use aptitude to get an older Rails version, and do a 
> 'gem freeze' for the application instead of upgrading Rails on the 
> server?

Here are some alternative options:

- yes use gem:freeze should allow you to get the app working somewhere 
else, and then you can just pull the app onto the NAT-ed box.
- you can also install the gems from the source.  It really isn't that 
bad to do this, and you probably only need half a dozen gems for rails.
- you can push the whole thing into the cloud; I for one like linode : 
www.linode.com

For what its worth gem isn't the ONLY piece of software that won't run 
on certain NAT-ed machines; I've experienced a similar problem with some 
VPN software.

Anyways I opened a bug for this

http://rubyforge.org/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=27946&group_id=126&atid=575

and if you could update the bug description (or post and I will attach) 
your "gem env" and the debugging output of your "gem update" command. 
I'm sure that's more than a few people who've been frustrated by this.

Thanks.
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