“gem install rails” fails with DNS error

Question

$ rvm use
Using /home/owner/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.1.2
$ gem install rails
ERROR:  While executing gem ... (Gem::RemoteFetcher::FetchError)
    Errno::ECONNREFUSED: Connec         


        

Answer 1

I'm using RVM (1.25.29), Ubuntu 14.04 and ruby 2.0.0. This was a fresh RVM and ruby 2.0 installation.

In my case I was trying to install OpenShift Online's command-line tool: rhc with "gem install rhc".

I finally fixed it by using bundle install and a Gemfile. I'm not sure why but bundle was able to get the gems via https to rubygems.org, but "gem install" could not.

Try creating a Gemfile with your gem in it as a temporary fix to get the gem installed.

Gemfile:

source 'https://rubygems.org'

# have bundle handle the gem install via https
gem 'rails'

Then run:

 bundle install

The only way I was able to get it to work using "gem install" was to use:

gem install --source http://rubygems.org

But that's unsafe and NOT recommended.

I haven't been able to determine why bundle can install via https, but gem can't. I'm relatively new to ruby and rvm.

The bundler gem came with the rvm installation, but rubygems came with ruby2.0.0-p481. At first and because of the error I thought it had something to do with openssl, but after a lot of trial and error it seems to be related to missing, dependent gems.

After the gem was installed via bundle, I was able to uninstall it and then re-install via "gem install". I noticed that "bundle install" installed some missing network and ssl-related gems before installing "rhc".

Without knowing a whole lot about how bundle and gem install work I'm thinking that the bundler gem had "everything" it needed to go out via https while rubygems (which came with the ruby 2.0 install) didn't. And that would explain why after the bundle install, gem install worked.

I hope this works for anyone else that's encountered this. If not, at least it's one more thing to try ;-).

Answer 2

New top level domains - .prod, .network are real domains not be be used as internal placeholder - https://icann.org/namecollision

Answer 3

For me downloading and reinstalling gem from this page: https://rubygems.org/pages/download solved the Errno::ECONNREFUSED problem.

Answer 4

I'm using openSUSE 13.1 OS for my rails development. Suddenly I got the same issue and reported to the SUSE mailing list. And then got an very good explanation about the problem here.

Background: the tld ".site" is offically registered and thus no longer available for private use.

ToDo: Change your private tld, to something NOT registered.

Gotchas: ".local" is reserved for mDNS / ZeroConf / Bonjour / Rendezvous. Do NOT use it for DNS / DHCP !

Examples: ".box", ".lan" : both are suggested by some Internet-Connect-Routers (DSL/Cable/Fibre) ".lnet", ".your-name-here" (.ArupRakshit for you) : possible, worth to try.

HTH, Yamaban.

I followed his instrutions here

For future reader goto YAST -> Netwrok devices -> Network Settings -> Hostname/DNS -> Domain Name (and here put your name).

[arup@Rails]$ gem install rails --no-ri --no-rdoc
Fetching: thread_safe-0.3.5.gem (100%)
Successfully installed thread_safe-0.3.5
Fetching: tzinfo-1.2.2.gem (100%)
Successfully installed tzinfo-1.2.2 


Fetching: i18n-0.7.0.gem (100%) 
........
........
[arup@Rails]$ rails -v
Rails 4.2.0

Now all is set. :)

Answer 5

I had the same problem when trying to install premailer and upgrading ruby to current stable version (2.3.0) fixed the issue.

with rvm:

rvm install 2.3.0

rvm use 2.3.0

gem install premailer 

of course, this applies to any gem, not just premailer

Answer 6

I had the same issue with Comcast xFinity and Compass.

Update for Windows 7 users:

Go to Control Panel > Network and Sharing Center
Under "Active Networks" select "Connections: Local Area Connections"
In the "Local Area Connection Status" dialogue box, click on "Properties"
Double click the IPv4 item
In the "Internet Proptocol Verion 4" icon or click the "Properties" button, then click "Advanced"
In the DNS tab, just above the 2nd input box, click the "Append These DNS suffixes (in order)" radio button,
    then click "Add", enter "home.lan", then click OK until the dialogue closes.

    Many thanks to John Smith for the Vista fix and Somnambulent for Win 8.1 fix.