When I first started on Learn.co, I was on Windows, and I used the Nitrous IDE, and they walk you through the set-up. I then used my girlfriend’s iMac, and the set-up was easy, and again they walk you through it.

Today, with the help of Ryan McNeely, I got it set up on Ubuntu.

Specifications: I’m on Ubuntu 14.04.4 LTS

Here is what I had to do:

Install Ruby 2.2.3

I followed this tutorial. I did the “Installing Ruby” section, and also the “Configuring Git” section.

Configure Git:

[See above]

Install RVM

I’m not sure how to take advantage of this yet, but Ryan recommended it, and I can see the advantage of having a Version Manager. I followed this guide.

Note: I realize now that in the first tutorial I used to install Ruby 2.2.3, he recommends choosing rbenv or RVM. I installed Ruby in step 1 using rbenv, and then I installed rvm per Ryan’s suggestion. I don’t know enough to know if this is going to cause any issues down the road.

Install the learn gem

This is the part that took the most troubleshooting for me.

• Enter this into the terminal, and wait for it to install:

gem install learn-co

• I then entered:

learn help

• And it said:

To connect with the Learn web application, you will need to
configure the Learn gem with an OAuth token. You can find yours
at the bottom of your profile page at:
https://learn.co/your-github-username.
Once you have it, please come back here and paste it in:

• They want you to change “your-github-username” to your actual github username (this didn’t occur to me at first…), which will take you to your Learn profile page.
• I went to: https://learn.co/reeddunkle
• All the way at the bottom of the page, in a tiny font, which is a color that almost blends in with the background color of the page, is your OAuth token.
• Copy this string of characters, and paste it into your terminal (Ctrl+Shift+V, or middle mouse click), and press Enter. You should then see:

Authenticating...
Commands:
 learn [test] [options] # R...
 learn directory # S...
 learn doctor # C...
 learn hello # V...
 learn help [COMMAND] # D...
 learn next [--editor=editor-binary] # O...
 learn open [lesson-name] [--editor=editor-binary] # O...
 learn reset # R...
 learn save # S...
 learn status # G...
 learn submit [-m|--message "message"] [-t|--team @username @username2] # S...
 learn version, -v, --version # D...
 learn whoami # D...

• Next, enter:

cd ~
ls

• Now you should see a code directory listed. Inside the code directory is a labs directory, which you then use the same that you used the labs directory in Nitrous.

You should be good to go!