Rails: Could not find a JavaScript runtime. See https://github.com/sstephenson/execjs for a list of available runtimes. (ExecJS::RuntimeUnavailable)

My website has been broken since Dreamhost upgraded their servers a couple of weeks ago. I have been tearing my hair out trying to get it fixed and made some progress but am stuck on what is hopefully the final issue.

I'm using Rails 3.1.1 on Ruby 1.8.7 and get presented with a 'Ruby (Rack) application could not be started error' from PhusionPassenger. It states that it 'Could not find a JavaScript runtime. See https://github.com/sstephenson/execjs for a list of available runtimes. (ExecJS::RuntimeUnavailable)'. Searching for this on Dreamhost's wiki has suggested a solution to install 'therubyracer' gem.

So I updated my gemfile with the suggested gem like so:

gem 'therubyracer', '~> 0.9.9'

EDIT: I have also tried adding to the file with:

gem 'therubyracer', :platforms => :ruby

but it hasn't made a difference.

Then bundle installed on my Macbook (running OS X 10.5.8) without hitch. However, this fails when I run 'cap deploy' to put on Dreamhost; I see an error when it attempts to install libv8 which therubyracer depends on.

Anyone know how to get this to install correctly or any other working solution?

Any other info can be provided upon request.

Full error feedback from Terminal:

• executing "cd /home/futureproof/abunchofletters.co.uk/releases/20111118003703 && bundle install --gemfile /home/futureproof/abunchofletters.co.uk/releases/20111118003703/Gemfile --path /home/futureproof/.gems/bundle --deployment --quiet --without development test" servers: ["abunchofletters.co.uk"] [abunchofletters.co.uk] executing command ** [out :: abunchofletters.co.uk] Unfortunately, a fatal error has occurred. Please report this error to the Bundler issue tracker at https://github.com/carlhuda/bundler/issues so that we can fix it. Thanks! ** [out :: abunchofletters.co.uk] /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/rubygems/installer.rb:483:in build_extensions': ERROR: Failed to build gem native extension. (Gem::Installer::ExtensionBuildError) ** [out :: abunchofletters.co.uk] ** [out :: abunchofletters.co.uk] /usr/bin/ruby1.8 extconf.rb ** [out :: abunchofletters.co.uk] *** extconf.rb failed *** ** [out :: abunchofletters.co.uk] Could not create Makefile due to some reason, probably lack of ** [out :: abunchofletters.co.uk] necessary libraries and/or headers. Check the mkmf.log file for more ** [out :: abunchofletters.co.uk] details. You may need configuration options. ** [out :: abunchofletters.co.uk] ** [out :: abunchofletters.co.uk] Provided configuration options: ** [out :: abunchofletters.co.uk] --with-opt-dir ** [out :: abunchofletters.co.uk] --without-opt-dir ** [out :: abunchofletters.co.uk] --with-opt-include ** [out :: abunchofletters.co.uk] --without-opt-include=${opt-dir}/include ** [out :: abunchofletters.co.uk] --with-opt-lib ** [out :: abunchofletters.co.uk] --without-opt-lib=${opt-dir}/lib ** [out :: abunchofletters.co.uk] --with-make-prog ** [out :: abunchofletters.co.uk] --without-make-prog ** [out :: abunchofletters.co.uk] --srcdir=. ** [out :: abunchofletters.co.uk] --curdir ** [out :: abunchofletters.co.uk] --ruby=/usr/bin/ruby1.8 ** [out :: abunchofletters.co.uk] extconf.rb:13: uninitialized constant Gem (NameError) ** [out :: abunchofletters.co.uk] Checking for Python... ** [out :: abunchofletters.co.uk] ** [out :: abunchofletters.co.uk] Gem files will remain installed in /home/futureproof/.gems/bundle/ruby/1.8/gems/libv8-3.3.10.4 for inspection. ** [out :: abunchofletters.co.uk] Results logged to /home/futureproof/.gems/bundle/ruby/1.8/gems/libv8-3.3.10.4/ext/libv8/gem_make.out ** [out :: abunchofletters.co.uk] from /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/rubygems/installer.rb:446:ineach' ** [out :: abunchofletters.co.uk] from /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/rubygems/installer.rb:446:in build_extensions' ** [out :: abunchofletters.co.uk] from /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/rubygems/installer.rb:198:ininstall' ** [out :: abunchofletters.co.uk] from /home/futureproof/.gems/gems/bundler-1.1.rc/lib/bundler/source.rb:90:in install' ** [out :: abunchofletters.co.uk] from /home/futureproof/.gems/gems/bundler-1.1.rc/lib/bundler/rubygems_integration.rb:78:in preserve_paths' ** [out :: abunchofletters.co.uk] from /home/futureproof/.gems/gems/bundler-1.1.rc/lib/bundler/source.rb:89:in install' ** [out :: abunchofletters.co.uk] from /home/futureproof/.gems/gems/bundler-1.1.rc/lib/bundler/installer.rb:73:in install_gem_from_spec' ** [out :: abunchofletters.co.uk] from /home/futureproof/.gems/gems/bundler-1.1.rc/lib/bundler/rubygems_integration.rb:93:in with_build_args' ** [out :: abunchofletters.co.uk] from /home/futureproof/.gems/gems/bundler-1.1.rc/lib/bundler/installer.rb:72:in install_gem_from_spec' ** [out :: abunchofletters.co.uk] from /home/futureproof/.gems/gems/bundler-1.1.rc/lib/bundler/installer.rb:56:in run' ** [out :: abunchofletters.co.uk] from /home/futureproof/.gems/gems/bundler-1.1.rc/lib/bundler/installer.rb:55:in run' ** [out :: abunchofletters.co.uk] from /home/futureproof/.gems/gems/bundler-1.1.rc/lib/bundler/installer.rb:12:in install' ** [out :: abunchofletters.co.uk] from /home/futureproof/.gems/gems/bundler-1.1.rc/lib/bundler/cli.rb:219:in install' ** [out :: abunchofletters.co.uk] from /home/futureproof/.gems/gems/bundler-1.1.rc/lib/bundler/vendor/thor/task.rb:22:in send' ** [out :: abunchofletters.co.uk] from /home/futureproof/.gems/gems/bundler-1.1.rc/lib/bundler/vendor/thor/task.rb:22:in run' ** [out :: abunchofletters.co.uk] from /home/futureproof/.gems/gems/bundler-1.1.rc/lib/bundler/vendor/thor/invocation.rb:118:in invoke_task' ** [out :: abunchofletters.co.uk] from /home/futureproof/.gems/gems/bundler-1.1.rc/lib/bundler/vendor/thor.rb:263:in dispatch' ** [out :: abunchofletters.co.uk] from /home/futureproof/.gems/gems/bundler-1.1.rc/lib/bundler/vendor/thor/base.rb:386:in start' ** [out :: abunchofletters.co.uk] from /home/futureproof/.gems/gems/bundler-1.1.rc/bin/bundle:13 ** [out :: abunchofletters.co.uk] from /home/futureproof/.gems/bin/bundle:19:in load' ** [out :: abunchofletters.co.uk] from /home/futureproof/.gems/bin/bundle:19 command finished in 13170ms *** [deploy:update_code] rolling back * executing "rm -rf /home/futureproof/abunchofletters.co.uk/releases/20111118003703; true" servers: ["abunchofletters.co.uk"] [abunchofletters.co.uk] executing command command finished in 563ms failed: "sh -c 'cd /home/futureproof/abunchofletters.co.uk/releases/20111118003703 && bundle install --gemfile /home/futureproof/abunchofletters.co.uk/releases/20111118003703/Gemfile --path /home/futureproof/.gems/bundle --deployment --quiet --without development test'" on abunchofletters.co.uk

If you're on Ubuntu, install nodejs

sudo apt-get install nodejs

libv8 is an OS library; you'll need to install the correct Linux system library. If you're running Ubuntu, it's

sudo apt-get install libv8-dev

Alternatively, you can install node.js which is available as a Debian/Ubuntu package for various distros, e.g. http://ppa.launchpad.net/chris-lea/node.js/ubuntu

You may save yourself a lot of trouble by deploying on Heroku instead where you don't have to manage the OS or components for gems.

i use this gems on Dreamhost with Rails 3.1 for the Asset Pipeline

group :assets do
  gem 'execjs'
  gem 'therubyracer', :platforms => :ruby
  gem 'johnson'
  gem 'sass-rails', "  ~> 3.1.0"
  gem 'coffee-rails', "~> 3.1.0"
  gem 'uglifier'
end

therubyracer as precompiler, and johnson as runtime.

This work for me in 2 Rails 3.1 apps hosted by Dreamhost.

You just need to get libv8, for OS with Brew just do:

brew install v8

I'm in dreamhost shared server.

I installed nodejs without using root/sudo. On the server:

#download node js (check last version from web)
$ wget http://nodejs.org/dist/v0.8.16/node-v0.8.16-linux-x86.tar.gz
#untar
$ tar xzf node-v0.8.16-linux-x86.tar.gz

Finnaly add its path to the deploy.rb, adding the following line (some more paths are added in this case):

default_environment["PATH"] = ":/home/myUser/soft/node-v0.8.16-linux-x86/bin:/home/myUser/.gems/bin:/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/bin/:$PATH"

You are done