NOTE: If you are not using rvm, this may work more smoothly, but I want to use rvm, hence the pain :(

FIRST – make sure your Ubuntu box is ready for Ruby. If this is not done correctly, you may need to re-install ruby several times, which can get quite frustrating :(

sudo aptitude install build-essential bison openssl libreadline6 
libreadline6-dev curl git zlib1g zlib1g-dev libssl-dev libyaml-dev 
libsqlite3-0 libsqlite3-dev sqlite3 libxml2-dev libxslt-dev autoconf 
libc6-dev ncurses-dev subversion

Then install rvm

#Install RVM and ruby 1.9.2 on Ubuntu 
sudo apt-get install curl build-essential libssl-dev libreadline5-dev 
bash < <( curl http://rvm.beginrescueend.com/releases/rvm-install-head ) 
# Add to end of .bashrc file ... 
if [[ -s "$HOME/.rvm/scripts/rvm" ]] ; then source "$HOME/.rvm/scripts/rvm" 
; fi 
# Open a new terminal 
type rvm | head -n1 # Should see "rvm is a function" 
rvm notes # to make sure of a good install 
rvm install 1.9.2 # Installs ruby 1.9.2 
rvm --default ruby-1.9.2 # Makes 1.9.2 the default ruby 
ruby -v # Should see the 1.9.2 message

Now you should be able to follow the quick start guide, and “gem install heroku” should install it and its dependancies…

http://devcenter.heroku.com/articles/quickstart

Gem dependancies:

1. rest-client
2. mime-types
3. launchy
4. readline (although I thought we’d tried the readline workaround below)

Sources:

1. Heroku Groups
2. Ruby openssl issues – http://beginrescueend.com/packages/openssl/
3. zlib issues – http://beginrescueend.com/packages/zlib/
4. readline – https://rvm.beginrescueend.com/packages/readline/