Install Required Packages

First, make sure you have the universe repository enabled in your /etc/apt/sources.list file. Your file should resemble the following:

File excerpt: /etc/apt/sources.list

## main & restricted repositories
deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ jaunty main restricted universe
deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ jaunty main restricted universe

deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jaunty-security main restricted universe
deb-src http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jaunty-security main restricted universe

If you added universe to the the items in your list, you'll need to update your repository database:

apt-get update

Issue the following command to install packages required for Ruby on Rails.

apt-get install wget build-essential ruby1.8 ruby1.8-dev irb1.8 rdoc1.8 zlib1g-dev \
                libopenssl-ruby1.8 rubygems1.8 libopenssl-ruby libzlib-ruby libssl-dev

Create symbolic links to the installed version of Ruby:

ln -s /usr/bin/ruby1.8 /usr/bin/ruby
ln -s /usr/bin/irb1.8 /usr/bin/irb

Install the rake gem:

gem install rake

cd /root
wget http://rubyforge.org/frs/download.php/59007/passenger-2.2.4.tar.gz
cd /opt
tar xzvf ~/passenger-2.2.4.tar.gz

cd passenger-2.2.4/bin
./passenger-install-nginx-module

Set up an Init Script for Nginx

Nginx is now installed in /opt/nginx, but we need a way of controlling it. Create a file called /etc/init.d/nginx and copy the following script contents into it:

File: /etc/init.d/nginx

#! /bin/sh

### BEGIN INIT INFO
# Provides:          nginx
# Required-Start:    $all
# Required-Stop:     $all
# Default-Start:     2 3 4 5
# Default-Stop:      0 1 6
# Short-Description: starts the nginx web server
# Description:       starts nginx using start-stop-daemon
### END INIT INFO

PATH=/opt/nginx/sbin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin
DAEMON=/opt/nginx/sbin/nginx
NAME=nginx
DESC=nginx

test -x $DAEMON || exit 0

# Include nginx defaults if available
if [ -f /etc/default/nginx ] ; then
        . /etc/default/nginx
fi

set -e

case "$1" in
  start)
        echo -n "Starting $DESC: "
        start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --pidfile /opt/nginx/logs/$NAME.pid \
                --exec $DAEMON -- $DAEMON_OPTS
        echo "$NAME."
        ;;
  stop)
        echo -n "Stopping $DESC: "
        start-stop-daemon --stop --quiet --pidfile /opt/nginx/logs/$NAME.pid \
                --exec $DAEMON
        echo "$NAME."
        ;;
  restart|force-reload)
        echo -n "Restarting $DESC: "
        start-stop-daemon --stop --quiet --pidfile \
                /opt/nginx/logs/$NAME.pid --exec $DAEMON
        sleep 1
        start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --pidfile \
                /opt/nginx/logs/$NAME.pid --exec $DAEMON -- $DAEMON_OPTS
        echo "$NAME."
        ;;
  reload)
          echo -n "Reloading $DESC configuration: "
          start-stop-daemon --stop --signal HUP --quiet --pidfile     /opt/nginx/logs/$NAME.pid \
              --exec $DAEMON
          echo "$NAME."
          ;;
      *)
            N=/etc/init.d/$NAME
            echo "Usage: $N {start|stop|restart|reload|force-reload}" >&2
            exit 1
            ;;
    esac

    exit 0

Run the following command to set system startup links:

chmod +x /etc/init.d/nginx
/usr/sbin/update-rc.d -f nginx defaults

You can now start, stop, and restart Nginx just like any other server daemon. For example, to start the server, issue the following command:

/etc/init.d/nginx start

The configuration file for Nginx is located at /opt/nginx/conf/nginx.conf. This is the file you'll need to edit to add support for your Rails applications. A default server is already configured in this file, and it also contains examples for alternate virtual host and SSL configurations.

Install MySQL Support (optional)

If your application uses MySQL, install the database server by following our MySQL on Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty) guide. Once it's installed and configured properly, issue the following commands:

apt-get install libmysqlclient15-dev libmysql-ruby

gem install mysql --no-rdoc --no-ri -- --with-mysql-dir=/usr/bin \
    --with-mysql-lib=/usr/lib/mysql --with-mysql-include=/usr/include/mysql

Congratulations!

You've successfully configured your server to use Passenger for Nginx to serve Ruby on Rails applications. Enjoy!