Get started with Ruby on Rails on WSL2 Ubuntu

Install Ubuntu

If you already have WSL2 Ubuntu 24.04 skip these two steps.

Open PowerShell as Administrator:

wsl --install -d Ubuntu-24.04

Once Ubuntu is installed, make sure it’s running as WSL2:

wsl --set-version Ubuntu-24.04 2

Close PowerShell and run Ubuntu-24.04 from the application menu. Once you are in the Ubuntu terminal, update and install things:

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade
sudo apt-get install autoconf patch build-essential rustc libssl-dev libyaml-dev libreadline6-dev zlib1g-dev libgmp-dev libncurses5-dev libffi-dev libgdbm6 libgdbm-dev libdb-dev uuid-dev libffi-dev sqlite3

Once the system dependencies are installed, install rbenv:

curl -fsSL https://github.com/rbenv/rbenv-installer/raw/HEAD/bin/rbenv-installer | bash

Install Ruby and Rails

Install Ruby 3.3.3 or any version you like:

rbenv install 3.3.3

Make it available globally:

rbenv global 3.3.3

Check that ruby is OK:

ruby --version

You should see something like:

ruby 3.3.3 (2024-06-12 revision f1c7b6f435) [x86_64-linux]

Install Rails:

gem install rails

Check that Rails is there:

rails --version

You should see something like:

Rails 7.1.3.4

Create a project and run it in VSCode

Install Visual Studio Code from here https://code.visualstudio.com/

Once you have it installed, go back to Ubuntu and create a new Rails project:

rails new your-project-name --css=tailwind

Wait for Rails to generate its gazillion files, and then:

cd your-project-name
code .

VSCode should install things and open the Rails project. From the top menu, run a new Terminal and from the terminal run:

bin/dev

You should see something like:

$ bin/dev
15:40:30 web.1  | started with pid 17781
15:40:30 css.1  | started with pid 17782
15:40:30 web.1  | => Booting Puma
15:40:30 web.1  | => Rails 7.1.3.4 application starting in development 
15:40:30 web.1  | => Run `bin/rails server --help` for more startup options
15:40:31 web.1  | Puma starting in single mode...
15:40:31 web.1  | * Puma version: 6.4.2 (ruby 3.3.3-p89) ("The Eagle of Durango")
15:40:31 web.1  | *  Min threads: 5
15:40:31 web.1  | *  Max threads: 5
15:40:31 web.1  | *  Environment: development
15:40:31 web.1  | *          PID: 17781
15:40:31 web.1  | * Listening on http://127.0.0.1:3000
15:40:31 web.1  | * Listening on http://[::1]:3000
15:40:31 web.1  | Use Ctrl-C to stop
15:40:31 css.1  | 
15:40:31 css.1  | Rebuilding...
15:40:32 css.1  | 
15:40:32 css.1  | Done in 339ms.

Open your browser at 127.0.0.1:3000, and you should see this:

Congratulations 🎊 You passed step 1 in your journey as a web apps developer ✌️

Now go and build some cool stuff!