Can't start rails server - "Failed to watch" error - Bash - Ubuntu - Windows 10

Question

The problem is that the server will not start. I have set up the following:

• Windows 10 build 1607 (Anniversary edition)
• Windows subsystem for Linux
• GNU bash, version 4.3.11(1)-release (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)
• Ubuntu 14.04.5 LTS \n \l
• Rails ver 5.0.0.1
• Ruby ver 2.3.1 (using - rbenv)
• MySQL 5.5.53

I am very new to Linux and Ruby / Rails so please forgive me if I use incorrect terminology.

After a few days of installing, configuring and debugging, I was able to get everything working (Linux shell, rails, ruby mysql etc.).
I began a tutorial at Lynda called "Ruby on Rails 5 Essential Training" and was able to do the following:

• Create a new rails project called Simple CMS
• Create MySQL databases for development and test
• Create users in MySQL

** When it came time to start the web server (Puma via the 'rails server' command) I received pages of errors as shown. I've searched every stackoverflow, google, Microsoft and GitHub result that had anything to do with "Failed to watch" and the above noted configuration. There were no solutions and the latest result stated that it was not possible to run the server because of the way Windows works. Before scrapping my installation I wanted to ask here if anyone had run across this and/or had a solution. Thank you very much in advance for any help and for taking the time to read this. Mike

Here is the error including the command I used to initiate it:(Sorry its huge)

mike@MIKES-PC:~/sites/simple_cms$ rails server
=> Booting Puma
=> Rails 5.0.0.1 application starting in development on http://localhost:3000
=> Run `rails server -h` for more startup options
Exiting
/home/mike/.rbenv/versions/2.3.1/lib/ruby/gems/2.3.0/gems/rb-inotify-0.9.7/lib/rb-inotify/watcher.rb:74:in `initialize': Invalid argument - Failed to watch "/home/mike/.rbenv/versions/2.3.1/lib/ruby/gems/2.3.0/gems/activesupport-5.0.0.1/lib/active_support/locale": the given event mask contains no legal events; or fd is not an inotify file descriptor. (Errno::EINVAL)
        from /home/mike/.rbenv/versions/2.3.1/lib/ruby/gems/2.3.0/gems/rb-inotify-0.9.7/lib/rb-inotify/notifier.rb:190:in `new'
        from /home/mike/.rbenv/versions/2.3.1/lib/ruby/gems/2.3.0/gems/rb-inotify-0.9.7/lib/rb-inotify/notifier.rb:190:in `watch'
        from /home/mike/.rbenv/versions/2.3.1/lib/ruby/gems/2.3.0/gems/rb-inotify-0.9.7/lib/rb-inotify/notifier.rb:204:in `watch'
        from /home/mike/.rbenv/versions/2.3.1/lib/ruby/gems/2.3.0/gems/listen-3.0.8/lib/listen/adapter/linux.rb:32:in `_configure'
        from /home/mike/.rbenv/versions/2.3.1/lib/ruby/gems/2.3.0/gems/listen-3.0.8/lib/listen/adapter/base.rb:45:in `block in configure'
        from /home/mike/.rbenv/versions/2.3.1/lib/ruby/gems/2.3.0/gems/listen-3.0.8/lib/listen/adapter/base.rb:40:in `each'
        from /home/mike/.rbenv/versions/2.3.1/lib/ruby/gems/2.3.0/gems/listen-3.0.8/lib/listen/adapter/base.rb:40:in `configure'
        from /home/mike/.rbenv/versions/2.3.1/lib/ruby/gems/2.3.0/gems/listen-3.0.8/lib/listen/adapter/base.rb:63:in `start'
        from /home/mike/.rbenv/versions/2.3.1/lib/ruby/gems/2.3.0/gems/listen-3.0.8/lib/listen/backend.rb:28:in `start'
        from /home/mike/.rbenv/versions/2.3.1/lib/ruby/gems/2.3.0/gems/listen-3.0.8/lib/listen/listener.rb:67:in `block in <class:Listener>'
        from /home/mike/.rbenv/versions/2.3.1/lib/ruby/gems/2.3.0/gems/listen-3.0.8/lib/listen/fsm.rb:120:in `instance_eval'
        from /home/mike/.rbenv/versions/2.3.1/lib/ruby/gems/2.3.0/gems/listen-3.0.8/lib/listen/fsm.rb:120:in `call'
        from /home/mike/.rbenv/versions/2.3.1/lib/ruby/gems/2.3.0/gems/listen-3.0.8/lib/listen/fsm.rb:91:in `transition_with_callbacks!'
        from /home/mike/.rbenv/versions/2.3.1/lib/ruby/gems/2.3.0/gems/listen-3.0.8/lib/listen/fsm.rb:57:in `transition'        from /home/mike/.rbenv/versions/2.3.1/lib/ruby/gems/2.3.0/gems/listen-3.0.8/lib/listen/listener.rb:90:in `start'        from /home/mike/.rbenv/versions/2.3.1/lib/ruby/gems/2.3.0/gems/activesupport-5.0.0.1/lib/active_support/evented_file_update_checker.rb:90:in `boot!'
        from /home/mike/.rbenv/versions/2.3.1/lib/ruby/gems/2.3.0/gems/activesupport-5.0.0.1/lib/active_support/evented_file_update_checker.rb:61:in `initialize'
        from /home/mike/.rbenv/versions/2.3.1/lib/ruby/gems/2.3.0/gems/activesupport-5.0.0.1/lib/active_support/i18n_railtie.rb:59:in `new'
        from /home/mike/.rbenv/versions/2.3.1/lib/ruby/gems/2.3.0/gems/activesupport-5.0.0.1/lib/active_support/i18n_railtie.rb:59:in `initialize_i18n'
        from /home/mike/.rbenv/versions/2.3.1/lib/ruby/gems/2.3.0/gems/activesupport-5.0.0.1/lib/active_support/i18n_railtie.rb:15:in `block in <class:Railtie>'
        from /home/mike/.rbenv/versions/2.3.1/lib/ruby/gems/2.3.0/gems/activesupport-5.0.0.1/lib/active_support/lazy_load_hooks.rb:36:in `execute_hook'
        from /home/mike/.rbenv/versions/2.3.1/lib/ruby/gems/2.3.0/gems/activesupport-5.0.0.1/lib/active_support/lazy_load_hooks.rb:45:in `block in run_load_hooks'
        from /home/mike/.rbenv/versions/2.3.1/lib/ruby/gems/2.3.0/gems/activesupport-5.0.0.1/lib/active_support/lazy_load_hooks.rb:44:in `each'
        from /home/mike/.rbenv/versions/2.3.1/lib/ruby/gems/2.3.0/gems/activesupport-5.0.0.1/lib/active_support/lazy_load_hooks.rb:44:in `run_load_hooks'
        from /home/mike/.rbenv/versions/2.3.1/lib/ruby/gems/2.3.0/gems/railties-5.0.0.1/lib/rails/application/finisher.rb:65:in `block in <module:Finisher>'
        from /home/mike/.rbenv/versions/2.3.1/lib/ruby/gems/2.3.0/gems/railties-5.0.0.1/lib/rails/initializable.rb:30:in `instance_exec'
        from /home/mike/.rbenv/versions/2.3.1/lib/ruby/gems/2.3.0/gems/railties-5.0.0.1/lib/rails/initializable.rb:30:in `run'
        from /home/mike/.rbenv/versions/2.3.1/lib/ruby/gems/2.3.0/gems/railties-5.0.0.1/lib/rails/initializable.rb:55:in `block in run_initializers'
        from /home/mike/.rbenv/versions/2.3.1/lib/ruby/2.3.0/tsort.rb:228:in `block in tsort_each'
        from /home/mike/.rbenv/versions/2.3.1/lib/ruby/2.3.0/tsort.rb:350:in `block (2 levels) in each_strongly_connected_component'
        from /home/mike/.rbenv/versions/2.3.1/lib/ruby/2.3.0/tsort.rb:431:in `each_strongly_connected_component_from'
        from /home/mike/.rbenv/versions/2.3.1/lib/ruby/2.3.0/tsort.rb:349:in `block in each_strongly_connected_component'
        from /home/mike/.rbenv/versions/2.3.1/lib/ruby/2.3.0/tsort.rb:347:in `each'
        from /home/mike/.rbenv/versions/2.3.1/lib/ruby/2.3.0/tsort.rb:347:in `call'
        from /home/mike/.rbenv/versions/2.3.1/lib/ruby/2.3.0/tsort.rb:347:in `each_strongly_connected_component'
        from /home/mike/.rbenv/versions/2.3.1/lib/ruby/2.3.0/tsort.rb:226:in `tsort_each'
        from /home/mike/.rbenv/versions/2.3.1/lib/ruby/2.3.0/tsort.rb:205:in `tsort_each'
        from /home/mike/.rbenv/versions/2.3.1/lib/ruby/gems/2.3.0/gems/railties-5.0.0.1/lib/rails/initializable.rb:54:in `run_initializers'
        from /home/mike/.rbenv/versions/2.3.1/lib/ruby/gems/2.3.0/gems/railties-5.0.0.1/lib/rails/application.rb:352:in `initialize!'
        from /home/mike/sites/simple_cms/config/environment.rb:5:in `<top (required)>'
        from /home/mike/sites/simple_cms/config.ru:3:in `require_relative'
        from /home/mike/sites/simple_cms/config.ru:3:in `block in <main>'
        from /home/mike/.rbenv/versions/2.3.1/lib/ruby/gems/2.3.0/gems/rack-2.0.1/lib/rack/builder.rb:55:in `instance_eval'
        from /home/mike/.rbenv/versions/2.3.1/lib/ruby/gems/2.3.0/gems/rack-2.0.1/lib/rack/builder.rb:55:in `initialize'        from /home/mike/sites/simple_cms/config.ru:in `new'
        from /home/mike/sites/simple_cms/config.ru:in `<main>'
        from /home/mike/.rbenv/versions/2.3.1/lib/ruby/gems/2.3.0/gems/rack-2.0.1/lib/rack/builder.rb:49:in `eval'
        from /home/mike/.rbenv/versions/2.3.1/lib/ruby/gems/2.3.0/gems/rack-2.0.1/lib/rack/builder.rb:49:in `new_from_string'
        from /home/mike/.rbenv/versions/2.3.1/lib/ruby/gems/2.3.0/gems/rack-2.0.1/lib/rack/builder.rb:40:in `parse_file'        from /home/mike/.rbenv/versions/2.3.1/lib/ruby/gems/2.3.0/gems/rack-2.0.1/lib/rack/server.rb:318:in `build_app_and_options_from_config'
        from /home/mike/.rbenv/versions/2.3.1/lib/ruby/gems/2.3.0/gems/rack-2.0.1/lib/rack/server.rb:218:in `app'
        from /home/mike/.rbenv/versions/2.3.1/lib/ruby/gems/2.3.0/gems/railties-5.0.0.1/lib/rails/commands/server.rb:59:in `app'
        from /home/mike/.rbenv/versions/2.3.1/lib/ruby/gems/2.3.0/gems/rack-2.0.1/lib/rack/server.rb:353:in `wrapped_app'
        from /home/mike/.rbenv/versions/2.3.1/lib/ruby/gems/2.3.0/gems/railties-5.0.0.1/lib/rails/commands/server.rb:124:in `log_to_stdout'
        from /home/mike/.rbenv/versions/2.3.1/lib/ruby/gems/2.3.0/gems/railties-5.0.0.1/lib/rails/commands/server.rb:77:in `start'
        from /home/mike/.rbenv/versions/2.3.1/lib/ruby/gems/2.3.0/gems/railties-5.0.0.1/lib/rails/commands/commands_tasks.rb:90:in `block in server'
        from /home/mike/.rbenv/versions/2.3.1/lib/ruby/gems/2.3.0/gems/railties-5.0.0.1/lib/rails/commands/commands_tasks.rb:85:in `tap'
        from /home/mike/.rbenv/versions/2.3.1/lib/ruby/gems/2.3.0/gems/railties-5.0.0.1/lib/rails/commands/commands_tasks.rb:85:in `server'
        from /home/mike/.rbenv/versions/2.3.1/lib/ruby/gems/2.3.0/gems/railties-5.0.0.1/lib/rails/commands/commands_tasks.rb:49:in `run_command!'
        from /home/mike/.rbenv/versions/2.3.1/lib/ruby/gems/2.3.0/gems/railties-5.0.0.1/lib/rails/commands.rb:18:in `<top (required)>'
        from /home/mike/sites/simple_cms/bin/rails:9:in `require'
        from /home/mike/sites/simple_cms/bin/rails:9:in `<top (required)>'
        from /home/mike/.rbenv/versions/2.3.1/lib/ruby/gems/2.3.0/gems/spring-2.0.0/lib/spring/client/rails.rb:28:in `load'
        from /home/mike/.rbenv/versions/2.3.1/lib/ruby/gems/2.3.0/gems/spring-2.0.0/lib/spring/client/rails.rb:28:in `call'
        from /home/mike/.rbenv/versions/2.3.1/lib/ruby/gems/2.3.0/gems/spring-2.0.0/lib/spring/client/command.rb:7:in `call'
        from /home/mike/.rbenv/versions/2.3.1/lib/ruby/gems/2.3.0/gems/spring-2.0.0/lib/spring/client.rb:30:in `run'
        from /home/mike/.rbenv/versions/2.3.1/lib/ruby/gems/2.3.0/gems/spring-2.0.0/bin/spring:49:in `<top (required)>'
        from /home/mike/.rbenv/versions/2.3.1/lib/ruby/gems/2.3.0/gems/spring-2.0.0/lib/spring/binstub.rb:31:in `load'
        from /home/mike/.rbenv/versions/2.3.1/lib/ruby/gems/2.3.0/gems/spring-2.0.0/lib/spring/binstub.rb:31:in `<top (required)>'
        from /home/mike/.rbenv/versions/2.3.1/lib/ruby/2.3.0/rubygems/core_ext/kernel_require.rb:68:in `require'
        from /home/mike/.rbenv/versions/2.3.1/lib/ruby/2.3.0/rubygems/core_ext/kernel_require.rb:68:in `require'
        from /home/mike/sites/simple_cms/bin/spring:14:in `<top (required)>'
        from bin/rails:3:in `load'
        from bin/rails:3:in `<main>'

Answer 1

Found a solution in @jwsloan's comment on this Github issue:

When creating a new rails app, use --skip-listen to avoid problems with inotify, like so:

rails new myproject --skip-listen

That should allow the server to start - worked for me! :)