parse_rackup_file': rackup file (config.ru) not readable (ArgumentError)-Collection of common programming errors

I used the one-click Rails, NGINX, Unicorn, MySQL droplet set up to create my server and I can’t get Unicorn to start as a daemon. Here’s the stack trace when I /etc/init.d/unicorn start:

/usr/local/rvm/gems/ruby-2.0.0-p195/gems/unicorn-4.8.0/lib/unicorn/configurator.rb:659:in `parse_rackup_file': rackup file (config.ru) not readable (ArgumentError)
from /usr/local/rvm/gems/ruby-2.0.0-p195/gems/unicorn-4.8.0/lib/unicorn/configurator.rb:77:in `reload'
from /usr/local/rvm/gems/ruby-2.0.0-p195/gems/unicorn-4.8.0/lib/unicorn/configurator.rb:68:in `initialize'
from /usr/local/rvm/gems/ruby-2.0.0-p195/gems/unicorn-4.8.0/lib/unicorn/http_server.rb:100:in `new'
from /usr/local/rvm/gems/ruby-2.0.0-p195/gems/unicorn-4.8.0/lib/unicorn/http_server.rb:100:in `initialize'
from /usr/local/rvm/gems/ruby-2.0.0-p195/gems/unicorn-4.8.0/bin/unicorn:126:in `new'
from /usr/local/rvm/gems/ruby-2.0.0-p195/gems/unicorn-4.8.0/bin/unicorn:126:in `'
from /usr/local/rvm/gems/ruby-2.0.0-p195/bin/unicorn:23:in `load'
from /usr/local/rvm/gems/ruby-2.0.0-p195/bin/unicorn:23:in `'
from /usr/local/rvm/gems/ruby-2.0.0-p195/bin/ruby_executable_hooks:15:in `eval'
from /usr/local/rvm/gems/ruby-2.0.0-p195/bin/ruby_executable_hooks:15:in `'

When I which unicorn I get: /usr/local/rvm/gems/ruby-2.0.0-p195/bin/unicorn which seems like it should be good.

I’ve tried everything I can think of, some of which include:

  • Creating an RVM wrapper => No bin path suitable for lining wrapper. Try setting 'rvm_bin_path'.
  • sudo gem install unicorn => Failed to build native extensions… (for kgio 2.8.1). It's looking in/usr/bin/ruby1.9.1` for extconf.rb. I’ve never even touched a version of Ruby lower than 2.0.
  • rvm remove 2.0.0-p353 => A bunch of file permissions errors. RVM doesn’t recognize what sudo means either. Beats me…
  • Contacting DigitalOcean => They said to go ask ‘the community’.
  • Followed several other tutorials & suggestions about symlinking, putting PATH-related information in config files, and more. Nothing worked.

It works fine if I start it in the background (-D switch), but the processes still get killed once I disconnect from the terminal. I’m simply out of ideas and have been at this for two days.

Let me know if you want me to post any snippets of files or run commands. I didn’t want to fill this post with superfluous information.

Help me, StackOverflow, you’re my only hope…