Because Ubuntu 7.10 repositories don't have the latest version of ImageMagick, stopping you install the latest RMagick Ruby Gem; here's a guide to help you build it from source.

What had Gone Before

Before all this, I had installed the old version of ImageMagick by,

sudo apt-get install imagemagick
sudo apt-get install libmagick9-dev

So as you know before you start.

Remove ImageMagick

First off you're gonna have to remove your old copy of ImageMagick...

sudo apt-get remove imagemagick

Building & Installing ImageMagick 6.3.8

Now we're going to get the latest source files for ImageMagick and configure them correctly.

wget ftp://ftp.imagemagick.org/pub/ImageMagick/ImageMagick-6.3.8-11.tar.gz
tar xvvzf ImageMagick-6.3.8-11.tar.gz
cd ImageMagick-6.3.8-11

Now we're in the source directory, G

./configure --prefix=/usr

Excellent, let's build...

sudo make

This will take a while, you may get a few warning pop up but hopefully no show-stoppers; afterwards lets install...

sudo make install

Rmagick Gem

And finally the latest RMagick Gem..

sudo gem install rmagick

If this still fails, you can install the old gem with..

sudo gem install rmagick -v=1.15.12

But fingers crossed let hope the new one works

Did it work?

Yes it all installed, and I've now got the RMagick 2.2.2 gem running on Ubuntu 7.10

So, What does it support?

Simple to find out, run the command below to see what version of ImageMagick you've got and what it can support.

identify -list format

ImageMagick

From the terminal...

sudo yum install freetype freetype-devel libjpeg libjpeg-devel libpng libpng-devel libtiff libtiff-devel ImageMagick ImageMagick-devel ghostscript ghostscript-devel ghostscript-fonts libwmf libexif

This will install ImageMagick and all the development libraries to get it working.

And for the ruby gem...

sudo gem install rmagick

MySQL

First MySQL...

sudo yum install ruby-devel mysql mysql-devel mysql-server

Then the Ruby gem...

sudo gem install mysql -- --with-mysql-config=/usr/bin/mysql_config

Starting MySQL

Now in Terminal do...

/sbin/chkconfig mysqld on
/sbin/service mysqld start

That should enable the mysql services on your Fedora machine.

Services Running on Startup?

Do this to see what is actually running when you power up...

/usr/sbin/ntsysv

And finally to cleanup your System...

sudo yum clean all

Isn't open-source just wonderful, I mean with very little cash and a bit of time you can build something incredible just so long as your not afraid to roll up your sleeve's and delve into the console prompt; isn't much to ask is it?

Anyway today we'll go about quickly installing the RMagick Ruby gem to do some cool image manipulation and thumbnail management.

All examples are done on a development Ubuntu Server running 6.06 LTS, be sure to try this somewhere safe before hitting production ;-)

From start to end

Install imagemagick & Libs

First install imagemagick on Ubuntu...

sudo apt-get install imagemagick

Check it's installed...

dpkg -l | grep magick

Now install libmagick9-dev, making sure you choose the corresponding version for imagemagick IF asked (but you probably won't be)

sudo apt-get install libmagick9-dev

Gem Install

Now the easy bit (and most stressful), installing the Ruby Gem...

sudo gem install rmagick

After which you should see,

Building native extensions.
This could take a while...
Successfully installed rmagick-1.15.9

Doesn't Install !!!

Ok, for RMagick 2 it will only work for Imagemagick 6.3 and above, so to install the older version, do...

sudo gem install rmagick -v=1.15.10

Including it in your Ruby App

Now let's use it, by adding it to our controller/application_controller.rb

require 'RMagick'

Cool, your set to rock!

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