Need to get Ruby installed on OpenSolaris first, then it should be like other systems. Packages needed for gem-based installation are SUNWruby18 SUNWgcc SUWNgmake SUNWlibm SUNWgnu-coreutils- gems land in /var/ruby/1.8/gem_home. On snv_117 I had trouble getting the json gem to build, adding -std=c99 to gcc options in extconf.rb solved this.
Install Ruby
Ruby 1.8.6, 1.8.7, 1.9.1 or 1.9.2 with SSL bindings and development tools to build RubyGems with native extensions is required. You will need to install the appropriate packages for your operating system.
On Debian and Ubuntu
(We need wget as well for the next step)
On Red Hat and CentOS
Enable EPEL repository:
Enable ELFF repository to get Ruby 1.8.6.
(Modify the release to match your local system for EPEL and ELFF)
Install Ruby and development tools:
Install RubyGems from Source
We prefer to install RubyGems from source rather than use the OS-provided version (if any), as it is cross platform, so we know what to expect.
Install Chef Gem
Now we'll install the Chef RubyGem. This also installs Chef's dependencies.