I previously gave instructions for installing the Ruby on Rails environment on Linux Mint 11. Here are the instructions for Linux Mint 12 which was released a few days ago.

These instructions apply to installing the Ruby on Rails environment on Linux Mint 12, running in VirtualBox, using the MySQL database:

# Install Linux Mint 12 in VirtualBox. 
# Specify Maximum Video Memory. Disable 3D Acceleration. 
# Specify 1 GB of RAM.
# Do not install Guest Extensions

# open terminal

sudo apt-get install curl git-core build-essential bison openssl zlib1g zlib1g-dev libssl-dev libxml2-dev autoconf nodejs

sudo apt-get install libmysqlclient15-dev

# Install MySQL from Software Manager. (mysql-server, mysql-admin, mysql-query-browser)
# Server Hostname: localhost
# Username: root

# The following is based on http://phpfour.com/blog/2011/06/painless-ruby-and-rails-installation-on-ubuntumint/

# Install RVM (Ruby Version Manager)
bash & &(curl -s https://rvm.beginrescueend.com/install/rvm)

# Enter the following in ~/.bash_profile and/or ~/.bashrc (replace YOUR USER NAME with the username you're logged in with):
[[ -s "/home/YOUR USER NAME/.rvm/scripts/rvm" ]] && source "/home/YOUR USER NAME/.rvm/scripts/rvm"  # This loads RVM into a shell session.
rvm use 1.9.2

source .bashrc

# Ignore the warning message: WARN: ruby ruby-1.9.2-p290 is not installed.

# Install Ruby 1.9.2
rvm install 1.9.2

# Set it as the ruby version to use through rvm:
rvm use 1.9.2

source .bashrc

# Now you won't get the warning message.

# Install latest version of Rails:
gem install rails

gem install mysql2 -v '0.3.10'

mkdir rails_projects
cd rails_projects

# Create a rails project with MySQL binding:
rails new hello -d mysql
cd hello

rake db:create

rails server

# browse to localhost:3000

I am running VirtualBox on Windows 7. I had to turn off 3D Acceleration to avoid graphics rendering issues.

After setting up ROR on Mint 12, I've decided to stick with Mint 11 for the time being. Rationale:

• Even after turning off 3D Accelleration, I still get frequent graphics rendering bugs. This may be due to running under VirtualBox, but that's how I run it.
• Mint 12 has no built-in mechanism to create application launchers.

I can live without the launchers, I suppose, but I can't live with the graphics rendering problems. Hopefully these will be resolved soon.