Rails and Windows 8 - "%1 is not a valid Win32 application" error

Question

The Goal

I'm trying to get Rails going for the first time and connected to MySQL, all on my local machine. As far as I can tell, Rails is installed according to spec. My setup is:

• Ruby 1.9.3 (installed via the latest version of the RubyInstaller)
• Rails 3.2.8
• Windows 8
• WAMP (which has the MySQL database I'd like to connect Rails to)

The Problem

When I run the command rails s, I receive the following error:

C:/wamp/Ruby193/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/mysql2-0.3.11-x86-mingw32/lib/mysql2/mysql2.rb:2:in 'require': 193: %1 is not a valid Win32 application - C:/wamp/Ruby193/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/mysql2-0.3.11-x86-mingw32/lib/mysql2/1.9/mysql2.so (LoadError)
    from C:/wamp/Ruby193/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/mysql2-0.3.11-x86-mingw32/
lib/mysql2/mysql2.rb:2:in '<top (required)>'
    from C:/wamp/Ruby193/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/mysql2-0.3.11-x86-mingw32/
lib/mysql2.rb:9:in 'require'
    from C:/wamp/Ruby193/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/mysql2-0.3.11-x86-mingw32/
lib/mysql2.rb:9:in '<top (required)>'
    from C:/wamp/Ruby193/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/bundler-1.2.1/lib/bundler/
runtime.rb:68:in 'require'
    from C:/wamp/Ruby193/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/bundler-1.2.1/lib/bundler/
runtime.rb:68:in 'block (2 levels) in require'
    from C:/wamp/Ruby193/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/bundler-1.2.1/lib/bundler/
runtime.rb:66:in 'each'
    from C:/wamp/Ruby193/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/bundler-1.2.1/lib/bundler/
runtime.rb:66:in 'block in require'
    from C:/wamp/Ruby193/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/bundler-1.2.1/lib/bundler/
runtime.rb:55:in 'each'
    from C:/wamp/Ruby193/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/bundler-1.2.1/lib/bundler/
runtime.rb:55:in 'require'
    from C:/wamp/Ruby193/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/bundler-1.2.1/lib/bundler.
rb:128:in 'require'
    from C:/Users/Andrew/Desktop/rails_test/simple_cms/config/application.rb
:7:in '<top (required)>'
    from C:/wamp/Ruby193/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/railties-3.2.8/lib/rails/c
ommands.rb:53:in 'require'
    from C:/wamp/Ruby193/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/railties-3.2.8/lib/rails/c
ommands.rb:53:in 'block in <top (required)>'
    from C:/wamp/Ruby193/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/railties-3.2.8/lib/rails/c
ommands.rb:50:in 'tap'
    from C:/wamp/Ruby193/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/railties-3.2.8/lib/rails/c
ommands.rb:50:in '<top (required)>'
    from script/rails:6:in 'require'
    from script/rails:6:in '<main>'

So there seems to be a problem with the mysql2 gem? My reading has shown me that ~1-2 years ago it was a big issue, but I was of the understanding that the problems with it had been resolved at this point. (And if it is indeed better than mysql, then I'd like to use it!)

What I've Tried

• I was getting the error "126: the specified module could not be found"; while looking up information regarding that, I came across the suggestion to copy "libmysql.dll" to Ruby's bin folder. It apparently fixed the 126 error, but now I'm getting this 193 error.
• Completely uninstalling Ruby, Rails, and reinstalling fresh multiple times using various different guides.
• Found this blog post where the author found that another program he had running was preventing rails s from working, so I closed everything and tried again. Nothing.
• Spent the past two days reading blogs and different posts by folks having the same issue, but it seems like all of them are from over a year ago, linking to (apparently successful!) fixes where the links are, unfortunately, now dead.

If any further information is needed, please let me know! I've been Googling this problem for a large part of the past 48 hours to absolutely no avail. Any direction would be appreciated. :) Thanks!

Answer 1

OP here. I just got Rails working. Unfortunately not to spec (I'm using SQLlite instead of the MySQL installation installed via WAMP), but it's functioning. I used the RailsInstaller and set it up according to their instructions, and it works brilliantly. I recommend it to anybody who's having the same problem I was!