Installing VMWare and running Ruby
First things, first, download this: http://webwork.cs.rpi.edu/RPI_Webwork_VM.zip
Now, open up the VMware player. If you're using windows, it should look like this:
Click "Open a Virtual Machine" and navigate to RPI_Webwork_VM\RPI_Webwork\rpi_webwork, add the file "rpi_webwork.vmx". It will prompt you to "Take Ownership". Click that button.
If it asks you whether you copied or moved it, click "I copied it". (I'm not sure how much this really matters, but this is a comprehensive guide)
If you've opened and run the .vmx correctly, you should be brought to a boot menu. Select the top option, or wait and it will select itself.
You should be at a login screen now, it will look like this:
The password is 'wwadmin', because we here at RCOS are pioneers of creative security measures.
Congrats, you've made it to the desktop.
Now we need to install Ruby and make sure you're reasonably well versed in Linux command line Git and Ruby. If this sounds very difficult and intimidating, don't worry, it's not nearly as bad as you think it is.
Click the button in the upper left, then click Terminal.
It is recommended that you use rvm (Ruby Version Manager) to install ruby.
It is possible that you already have ruby installed using your system's package manager. This isn't recommended because often the version of ruby is old but in some cases you may be able to get away with it. To check if you have ruby already installed, run this command:
ruby -v
If this command returns an error ("command not found"), skip the the section titled Installation by RVM. If this command displays the version of ruby you have, then you already have ruby installed. If the version displayed is 2.0.0 or greater, you are all set with this step. Otherwise, if the version is 1.9 or something else lower than 2, you should uninstall your existing ruby. The command to do that on Ubuntu is:
sudo apt-get remove ruby
After running, do a quick ruby -v and verify that the command is now not found. Then, proceed to the next section.
The command to install RVM as well as ruby is:
\curl -sSL https://get.rvm.io | bash -s stable --ruby=2.0.0
Note that this is the all-in-one command to install both ruby and RVM. If you have trouble installing both at once, or are interested in other installation options, check out rvm's installation guide.
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Now that ruby is installed and ready