diff --git a/.travis.yml b/.travis.yml
index b81838baec8..5cc14ad8766 100644
--- a/.travis.yml
+++ b/.travis.yml
@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@ env:
  - CMAKE_OPTIONS="-DPythonModular=ON" EXTRA_PACKAGES="python3-numpy python3-dev python3-scipy swig2.0"
  - CMAKE_OPTIONS="-DRModular=ON" EXTRA_PACKAGES="r-base-core swig2.0"
  - CMAKE_OPTIONS="-DJavaModular=ON" EXTRA_PACKAGES="openjdk-6-jdk jblas ant swig2.0"
- - CMAKE_OPTIONS="-DRubyModular=ON" EXTRA_PACKAGES="swig2.0" IS_RUBY=1
+ - CMAKE_OPTIONS="-DRubyModular=ON" EXTRA_PACKAGES="ruby ruby-dev ruby-narray swig2.0"
  - CMAKE_OPTIONS="-DCSharpModular=ON" EXTRA_PACKAGES="mono-devel mono-gmcs cli-common-dev swig2.0"
  - CMAKE_OPTIONS="-DLuaModular=ON" EXTRA_PACKAGES="lua5.1 liblua5.1-0-dev swig2.0"
  - CMAKE_OPTIONS="-DOctaveModular=ON" EXTRA_PACKAGES="octave octave3.2-headers swig2.0"
@@ -34,18 +34,19 @@ matrix:
     - compiler: gcc
       env: CMAKE_OPTIONS="-DJavaModular=ON" EXTRA_PACKAGES="openjdk-6-jdk jblas ant swig2.0"
     - compiler: gcc
-      env: CMAKE_OPTIONS="-DRubyModular=ON" EXTRA_PACKAGES="swig2.0" IS_RUBY=1
+      env: CMAKE_OPTIONS="-DRubyModular=ON" EXTRA_PACKAGES="ruby ruby-dev ruby-narray swig2.0"
     - compiler: gcc
       env: CMAKE_OPTIONS="-DCSharpModular=ON" EXTRA_PACKAGES="mono-devel mono-gmcs cli-common-dev swig2.0"
     - compiler: gcc
       env: CMAKE_OPTIONS="-DLuaModular=ON" EXTRA_PACKAGES="lua5.1 liblua5.1-0-dev swig2.0"
     - compiler: clang
       env: CMAKE_OPTIONS="-DOctaveModular=ON" EXTRA_PACKAGES="octave octave3.2-headers swig2.0"
+virtualenv:
+  system_site_packages: true
 before_install:
  - sudo apt-get update -qq
  - sudo apt-get install -qq libbz2-dev cdbs libeigen3-dev libarpack2-dev libatlas-base-dev libblas-dev libglpk-dev libhdf5-serial-dev libjson0-dev swig zlib1g-dev libxml2-dev libreadline6-dev libreadline-dev libsnappy-dev liblzo2-dev liblzma-dev liblapack-dev gdb cmake $EXTRA_PACKAGES
 before_script: 
   - mkdir build
   - cd build
-  - if [ ! -z ${IS_RUBY} ] ; then sudo gem install narray ; fi
 script: cmake -DENABLE_TESTING=ON $CMAKE_OPTIONS .. && make -j 4 && sudo make install && ctest --output-on-failure