Cannot install RVM . Permission denied in /usr/local/rvm

Question

Based on my previous thread : RVM installed by Ruby not working? where i had installed RVM using the root user, I then had to entirely remove the RVM install and now i am in

Answer 1

I had the original issue reported in this question, "mkdir: cannot create directory `/usr/local/rvm': Permission denied" when trying to install rvm.

This is my scenario and how I solved it - maybe this will help others with this same issue.

I have Ubuntu 11.04 installed on a laptop, I only have 1 user, the one I created at install time, named nathan. When I would try to install rvm as nathan, the rvm installer saw me as root and kept trying to install rvm globally, but since I wasn't really root, it couldn't get access to create directories in /usr/local/rvm.

I'm far from an expert with Ubuntu, so I'm sure there are easier/better ways to accomplish the things I did (and I would love to learn about them), but this worked for me:

1. I created a new user called rubydev

2. I logged in as rubydev, opened a terminal and typed:

   rubydev~$ bash < <(curl -B http://rvm.beginrescueend.com/install/rvm)
   

3. rvm installed correctly and I logged out of rubydev

4. Signed back in as nathan, opened a terminal and typed "su" (you could do all this with sudo, I am lazy)

5. After successfully getting root, I typed the following commands:

   root: /home/nathan# cp -R /home/rubydev/.rvm .
   
   root: /home/nathan# chown -R nathan .rvm
   
   root: /home/nathan# chgrp -R nathan .rvm
   
   root: /home/nathan# exit
   
   nathan~$ echo '[[ -s "$HOME/.rvm/scripts/rvm" ]] && . "$HOME/.rvm/scripts/rvm" # Load RVM function' >> ~/.bash_profile
   
   nathan~$ echo 'export rvm_path="/home/nathan/.rvm"' > ~/.rvmrc
   
   nathan~$ source .bash_profile
   

6. At this point, rvm was correctly installed under my home directory. To verify I typed:

   nathan~$ type rvm | head -1
   rvm is a function (if you don't get this response, something else is wrong)
   

7. Read the notes and installed any dependencies

   nathan~$ rvm notes
   

8. I installed some rubies

   nathan~$ rvm install 1.8.7-head
   nathan~$ rvm install 1.9.2-head
   

9. Verified install

       nathan~$ rvm list
   
       rvm rubies
           ruby-1.8.7-head [x86_64]
           ruby-1.9.2-head [x86_64]
   
       nathan~$ rvm use 1.9.2
       using /home/nathan/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.2-head
   
       nathan~$ rvm list
   
       rvm rubies
          ruby-1.8.7-head [x86_x64]
       => ruby-1.9.2-head [x86_x64]
   

10. Finally, I edited the preferences on the terminal itself to ensure the "Run command as as login shell" under the "Title and Command" tab was checked. It seems .bash_profile isn't otherwise processed.

11. I removed the rubydev user I created in step 1.

With all of that, I have a working rvm under Ubuntu 11.04 using my preferred username.