Difficulties installing mysql gem on Ubuntu

I am trying to install the mysql 2.8.1 gem. I would be using it to build a Rails 2.0.2 application on Ubuntu 10.04. I would be using Ruby 1.8.7. I have installed the development dependencies(other gems). For some reasons I am unable to install it. I am not able to exactly figure out how to fix it. Please help!!

I get the following in the terminal when I try to install it:

mohnish@pc146724-desktop:~/Downloads$ sudo gem install mysql-2.8.1.gem 
Building native extensions.  This could take a while...
ERROR:  Error installing mysql-2.8.1.gem:
	ERROR: Failed to build gem native extension.

/usr/bin/ruby1.8 extconf.rb
checking for mysql_query() in -lmysqlclient... no
checking for main() in -lm... yes
checking for mysql_query() in -lmysqlclient... no
checking for main() in -lz... yes
checking for mysql_query() in -lmysqlclient... no
checking for main() in -lsocket... no
checking for mysql_query() in -lmysqlclient... no
checking for main() in -lnsl... yes
checking for mysql_query() in -lmysqlclient... no
checking for main() in -lmygcc... no
checking for mysql_query() in -lmysqlclient... no
*** extconf.rb failed ***
Could not create Makefile due to some reason, probably lack of
necessary libraries and/or headers.  Check the mkmf.log file for more
details.  You may need configuration options.

Provided configuration options:
	--with-opt-dir
	--without-opt-dir
	--with-opt-include
	--without-opt-include=${opt-dir}/include
	--with-opt-lib
	--without-opt-lib=${opt-dir}/lib
	--with-make-prog
	--without-make-prog
	--srcdir=.
	--curdir
	--ruby=/usr/bin/ruby1.8
	--with-mysql-config
	--without-mysql-config
	--with-mysql-dir
	--without-mysql-dir
	--with-mysql-include
	--without-mysql-include=${mysql-dir}/include
	--with-mysql-lib
	--without-mysql-lib=${mysql-dir}/lib
	--with-mysqlclientlib
	--without-mysqlclientlib
	--with-mlib
	--without-mlib
	--with-mysqlclientlib
	--without-mysqlclientlib
	--with-zlib
	--without-zlib
	--with-mysqlclientlib
	--without-mysqlclientlib
	--with-socketlib
	--without-socketlib
	--with-mysqlclientlib
	--without-mysqlclientlib
	--with-nsllib
	--without-nsllib
	--with-mysqlclientlib
	--without-mysqlclientlib
	--with-mygcclib
	--without-mygcclib
	--with-mysqlclientlib
	--without-mysqlclientlib


Gem files will remain installed in /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/mysql-2.8.1 for inspection.
Results logged to /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/mysql-2.8.1/ext/mysql_api/gem_make.out
mohnish@pc146724-desktop:~/Downloads$ 

Thanks for your help!!

Try this and then install the mysql gem:

sudo apt-get install libmysqlclient-dev 

If that's not sufficient try it like this

 sudo apt-get install libmysqlclient-dev libmysqlclient16 ruby-dev

> Try this and then install the mysql gem: > > sudo apt-get install libmysqlclient-dev libmysqlclient16

This worked after then running sudo gem install mysql.

The documentation still doesn't install correctly (heaps of "No definition" errors, although thats not really a biggie.

You should do what the error message tells you: check the mkmf.log! Search for this file using find /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/ -name mkmf.log. Usually, this error message appears because you forgot to install the -dev package for the extension you were trying to install. So if you wanted to install the mysql gem, you probably forgot to install the libmysqlclient14-dev first. Do an apt-cache search | grep dev to find the appropriate packages.

plz check this for more information

In my case, I had the following error message:

> An error occurred while installing mysql (2.8.1), and Bundler cannot > continue. Make sure that gem install mysql -v '2.8.1' succeeds > before bundling.

I tried: gem install mysql -v '2.8.1', and I got an error message similar to what you got.

I fixed it doing the following:

• STEP (1): run this: sudo apt-get install libmysqlclient-dev

• STEP (2): install mysql: gem install mysql -v 2.8.1

You should get a success message similar to this:

> Successfully installed mysql-2.8.1
Installing ri documentation for > mysql-2.8.1 1 gem installed

I hope my answer helps.