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How to install Octopress with GSL on Debian

This will install Octopress with GSL (for 10x faster LSI support) on Debian Wheezy in 5 minutes.

Make sure you have created a Github-pages repository first.

Install required packages

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install ruby ruby-dev ruby-gsl build-essential

Install GSL

We enable GSL to speed up page generation and remove this annoying rake_generate warning:

Notice: for 10x faster LSI support, please install http://rb-gsl.rubyforge.org/

Compile by running:

cd /usr/src
sudo wget http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/gsl/gsl-1.14.tar.gz
sudo tar xvf gsl-1.14.tar.gz
sudo gsl-1.14/configure
sudo make
sudo make install

Running this command should return 1.14:

gsl-config --version

Install Octopress

cd /<path-to-repos>
git clone git://github.com/imathis/octopress.git octopress
cd octopress

Open file _config.yml and add the following line:

lsi: true

Prevent build warnings caused by missing 'nil' layout:

touch source/_layouts/nil.html

Install gems

Open file Gemfile and add the following lines to the development group:

gem 'execjs'
gem 'therubyracer'
gem 'gsl'

Install gems by running:

sudo gem install bundler
bundle install

Install Rake

Open file Rakefile and replace line 256:

Bundler.with_clean_env { system "git pull" }

with:

Bundler.with_clean_env { system "git pull origin #{deploy_branch}" }

Set up Rake by running:

rake install
rake setup_github_pages

All done

That's all there's to it. You are now:

  • In Git branch source (never work in master!)
  • Ready to create your first post

Reinstalling?

See "How to reinstall Octopress with Octostrap3 theme on Debian"