I just stumbled across this error in mid-yak-shave for one of my projects. While trying to get my app up and running to test something I get the usual native extensions whining:

Installing sqlite-ruby (2.2.3) with native extensions
Gem::Installer::ExtensionBuildError: ERROR: Failed to build gem native extension.

/home/mike/.rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.2-p290/bin/ruby extconf.rb
checking for main() in -lsqlite… no
checking for sqlite.h… no
*** extconf.rb failed ***
Could not create Makefile due to some reason, probably lack of
necessary libraries and/or headers. Check the mkmf.log file for more
details. You may need configuration options.

After a you see this sort of thing a few times you pretty instinctively bang out the command:

sudo apt-get install libsqlite3-dev

I was pretty takenaback to get the same error after installing the dev libraries. It turns out that I was installing the gem “sqlite-ruby” when I needed “sqlite3” is what you need if you are using Ruby 1.9.2.