LoadError while installing RubyGems 0.8.4

I'm running into an error when installing RubyGems on new Linux box using Ruby 1.8.2 2005-01-06 snapshot.

I issue 'ruby setup.rb all' as root and get the following error:

[SNIP]
---> lib/rubygems
mkdir -p /usr/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems
install builder.rb /usr/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems
[SNIP]
/usr/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems/custom_require.rb:26:in `require': No such file to load -- rubygems/builder (LoadError)
  from /usr/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems.rb:58:in `manage_gems'
  from /usr/local/src/rubygems-0.8.4/./post-install.rb:63:in `install_sources'
  from /usr/local/src/rubygems-0.8.4/./post-install.rb:74:in `instance_eval'
  from setup.rb:583:in `instance_eval'
  from setup.rb:583:in `try_run_hook'
  from setup.rb:577:in `run_hook'
  from setup.rb:1315:in `exec_task_traverse'
  from setup.rb:1168:in `exec_install'
  from setup.rb:887:in `exec_install'
  from setup.rb:705:in `invoke'
  from setup.rb:674:in `invoke'
  from setup.rb:1352

Thursday wrote:

I'm running into an error when installing RubyGems on new Linux box using Ruby 1.8.2 2005-01-06 snapshot.

I issue 'ruby setup.rb all' as root and get the following error:

[SNIP]
---> lib/rubygems
mkdir -p /usr/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems
install builder.rb /usr/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems
[SNIP]
/usr/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems/custom_require.rb:26:in `require': No such file to load -- rubygems/builder (LoadError)
    from /usr/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems.rb:58:in `manage_gems'

The solution was to recompile/reinstall ruby after installing zlibc. The new linux box was missing zlibc at the time ruby was compiled so ruby didn't have it.

Since the setup.rb error message didn't indicate zlibc as the problem, it was a royal pain to track down.