"An error occurred while installing json (1.8.0), and Bundler cannot continue" in Rails

Question

I have been given a website that was built using Ruby on Rails. I think the website was built about 3 years ago. I'm trying to get it up and running on my local machine, but getting a few errors when I try to run the server.

Versions: Ruby 2.4.0p0

Rails 5.1.1

Homebrew 1.2.3

Git version 2.11.0

When I run rails s I get this error:

Could not find proper version of railties (3.2.6) in any of the sources
Run `bundle install` to install missing gems.

When I run bundle install I get:

An error occurred while installing json (1.8.0), and Bundler cannot
continue.
Make sure that `gem install json -v '1.8.0'` succeeds before bundling.

I have google the error and have tried various things but still no luck. Some people said to add gem 'json', '1.8.0' to the gem file but still no luck

Here is the gemfile

source 'https://rubygems.org'

gem 'rails', '3.2.6'

# Bundle edge Rails instead:
# gem 'rails', :git => 'git://github.com/rails/rails.git'

gem 'mysql2', '> 0.3'
gem 'bluecloth'
gem 'simple_form'
gem 'carrierwave'
gem 'rmagick'
gem 'capistrano'
gem 'rvm-capistrano'

# Gems used only for assets and not required
# in production environments by default.
group :assets do
  gem 'sass-rails',   '~> 3.2.3'
  gem 'coffee-rails', '~> 3.2.1'

  # See https://github.com/sstephenson/execjs#readme for more supported runtimes
  gem 'therubyracer', :platforms => :ruby

  gem 'uglifier', '>= 1.0.3'
end

gem 'jquery-rails'

# To use ActiveModel has_secure_password
# gem 'bcrypt-ruby', '~> 3.0.0'

# To use Jbuilder templates for JSON
# gem 'jbuilder'

# Use unicorn as the app server
# gem 'unicorn'

# Deploy with Capistrano
# gem 'capistrano'

# To use debugger
# gem 'debugger'

Is this because the versions aren't compatible?

Gemfile.lock

GEM
  remote: https://rubygems.org/
  specs:
    actionmailer (3.2.6)
      actionpack (= 3.2.6)
      mail (~> 2.4.4)
    actionpack (3.2.6)
      activemodel (= 3.2.6)
      activesupport (= 3.2.6)
      builder (~> 3.0.0)
      erubis (~> 2.7.0)
      journey (~> 1.0.1)
      rack (~> 1.4.0)
      rack-cache (~> 1.2)
      rack-test (~> 0.6.1)
      sprockets (~> 2.1.3)
    activemodel (3.2.6)
      activesupport (= 3.2.6)
      builder (~> 3.0.0)
    activerecord (3.2.6)
      activemodel (= 3.2.6)
      activesupport (= 3.2.6)
      arel (~> 3.0.2)
      tzinfo (~> 0.3.29)
    activeresource (3.2.6)
      activemodel (= 3.2.6)
      activesupport (= 3.2.6)
    activesupport (3.2.6)
      i18n (~> 0.6)
      multi_json (~> 1.0)
    arel (3.0.2)
    bluecloth (2.2.0)
    builder (3.0.0)
    capistrano (2.12.0)
      highline
      net-scp (>= 1.0.0)
      net-sftp (>= 2.0.0)
      net-ssh (>= 2.0.14)
      net-ssh-gateway (>= 1.1.0)
    carrierwave (0.6.2)
      activemodel (>= 3.2.0)
      activesupport (>= 3.2.0)
    coffee-rails (3.2.2)
      coffee-script (>= 2.2.0)
      railties (~> 3.2.0)
    coffee-script (2.2.0)
      coffee-script-source
      execjs
    coffee-script-source (1.3.3)
    erubis (2.7.0)
    execjs (1.4.0)
      multi_json (~> 1.0)
    highline (1.6.12)
    hike (1.2.1)
    i18n (0.6.0)
    journey (1.0.4)
    jquery-rails (2.0.2)
      railties (>= 3.2.0, < 5.0)
      thor (~> 0.14)
    json (1.7.3)
    libv8 (3.16.14.13)
    mail (2.4.4)
      i18n (>= 0.4.0)
      mime-types (~> 1.16)
      treetop (~> 1.4.8)
    mime-types (1.19)
    multi_json (1.3.6)
    mysql2 (0.3.11)
    net-scp (1.0.4)
      net-ssh (>= 1.99.1)
    net-sftp (2.0.5)
      net-ssh (>= 2.0.9)
    net-ssh (2.5.2)
    net-ssh-gateway (1.1.0)
      net-ssh (>= 1.99.1)
    polyglot (0.3.3)
    rack (1.4.1)
    rack-cache (1.2)
      rack (>= 0.4)
    rack-ssl (1.3.2)
      rack
    rack-test (0.6.1)
      rack (>= 1.0)
    rails (3.2.6)
      actionmailer (= 3.2.6)
      actionpack (= 3.2.6)
      activerecord (= 3.2.6)
      activeresource (= 3.2.6)
      activesupport (= 3.2.6)
      bundler (~> 1.0)
      railties (= 3.2.6)
    railties (3.2.6)
      actionpack (= 3.2.6)
      activesupport (= 3.2.6)
      rack-ssl (~> 1.3.2)
      rake (>= 0.8.7)
      rdoc (~> 3.4)
      thor (>= 0.14.6, < 2.0)
    rake (0.9.2.2)
    rdoc (3.12)
      json (~> 1.4)
    ref (2.0.0)
    rmagick (2.13.1)
    rvm-capistrano (1.4.1)
      capistrano (>= 2.0.0)
    sass (3.1.20)
    sass-rails (3.2.5)
      railties (~> 3.2.0)
      sass (>= 3.1.10)
      tilt (~> 1.3)
    simple_form (2.0.1)
      actionpack (~> 3.0)
      activemodel (~> 3.0)
    sprockets (2.1.3)
      hike (~> 1.2)
      rack (~> 1.0)
      tilt (~> 1.1, != 1.3.0)
    therubyracer (0.12.2)
      libv8 (~> 3.16.14.0)
      ref
    thor (0.15.4)
    tilt (1.3.3)
    treetop (1.4.10)
      polyglot
      polyglot (>= 0.3.1)
    tzinfo (0.3.33)
    uglifier (1.2.6)
      execjs (>= 0.3.0)
      multi_json (~> 1.3)

PLATFORMS
  ruby

DEPENDENCIES
  bluecloth
  capistrano
  carrierwave
  coffee-rails (~> 3.2.1)
  jquery-rails
  mysql2 (> 0.3)
  rails (= 3.2.6)
  rmagick
  rvm-capistrano
  sass-rails (~> 3.2.3)
  simple_form
  therubyracer
  uglifier (>= 1.0.3)

When I run gem install json -v '1.8.0' I get the following (this was also advised a lot for people who were having the same problem as me but it hasn't worked - even with sudo):

ERROR:  Error installing json:
    ERROR: Failed to build gem native extension.

    current directory: /Users/me/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.4.0/gems/json-1.8.0/ext/json/ext/generator
/Users/me/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.4.0/bin/ruby -r ./siteconf20170622-61950-1tcycqj.rb extconf.rb
creating Makefile

current directory: /Users/me/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.4.0/gems/json-1.8.0/ext/json/ext/generator
make "DESTDIR=" clean

current directory: /Users/me/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.4.0/gems/json-1.8.0/ext/json/ext/generator
make "DESTDIR="
compiling generator.c
In file included from generator.c:1:
./../fbuffer/fbuffer.h:175:47: error: too few arguments provided to function-like macro invocation
    VALUE result = rb_str_new(FBUFFER_PAIR(fb));
                                              ^
/Users/me/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.4.0/include/ruby-2.4.0/ruby/intern.h:795:9: note: macro 'rb_str_new' defined here
#define rb_str_new(str, len) RB_GNUC_EXTENSION_BLOCK(   \
        ^
In file included from generator.c:1:
./../fbuffer/fbuffer.h:175:11: warning: incompatible pointer to integer conversion initializing 'VALUE' (aka 'unsigned long') with an expression of type 'VALUE (const char *, long)' (aka 'unsigned long (const char *, long)') [-Wint-conversion]
    VALUE result = rb_str_new(FBUFFER_PAIR(fb));
          ^        ~~~~~~~~~~
generator.c:840:25: error: use of undeclared identifier 'rb_cFixnum'
    } else if (klass == rb_cFixnum) {
                        ^
generator.c:842:25: error: use of undeclared identifier 'rb_cBignum'
    } else if (klass == rb_cBignum) {
                        ^
1 warning and 3 errors generated.
make: *** [generator.o] Error 1

make failed, exit code 2

Gem files will remain installed in /Users/me/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.4.0/gems/json-1.8.0 for inspection.
Results logged to /Users/me/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.4.0/extensions/x86_64-darwin-16/2.4.0/json-1.8.0/gem_make.out

Answer 1

Try using an earlier version of Ruby (via RBENV or RVM). I switched to Ruby 2.1.10 and the error went away.

Answer 2

Quick edit: Looks like my below answer could be wrong: you'll need at lease v2.0 of json to support ruby 2.4, as noted here: https://github.com/flori/json/issues/303

It looks like your version of rails is 3.2.6 according to your gemfile. Also, you have the gem rdoc, which has these requirements:

rdoc (3.12)
  json (~> 1.4)

That locks your json gem version to 1.4. You'll either need to live with an older version of json, or update rails and rdoc to handle it.