This is my first post to the list. I'm a first time user and I'm very eager
to give Context a try. However, so far I've been unable to get Context to
work properly. Maybe someone can help. I'm using a standard Windows PC
running XP SP2. I'm using the minimals version. There are no other Tex
related packages on my system.
Problem 1 (solved):
Ruby error: no such file to load ubygems
Solution: this error is caused by the environment variable RUBYOPT. When it
is set, it is usually set to -rubygems. Unsetting this variable solves the
problem.
Suggestion: when running first-setup.bat this error is produced on the very
first line. However, since there is a lot of text scrolling down the screen
this error is easily overlooked. It may be a good idea to unset the RUBYOPT
variable in this .bat file. It may also be a good idea to unset (and
probably reset) this variable in the texexec.bat file before texlua is
called.

Problem 2 (not-solved)
I'm getting the infamous error: I can't find the format file `cont-en.fmt'!
 I searched this list and tried texexec --make --all  This doesn't solve the
problem. The problem is located in this part of the output:

TexExec | using tex engine pdftex
TexExec | using tex format path ./pdftex
TexExec | unable to make format due to lack of permissions
TexExec | using mp engine mpost
TexExec | using mps format path .
TexExec | generating mps format metafun

I then did some debugging on the tex.rb file and found the error is
generated in the following piece of code starting at line 646:

        if texformats && texengine then
            report("using tex engine #{texengine}")
            texformatpath = if getvariable('local') then '.' else
Kpse.formatpath(texengine,true) end
            # can be empty, to do
            report("using tex format path #{texformatpath}")
            Dir.chdir(texformatpath) rescue false
            if FileTest.writable?(texformatpath) then

The last if fails and generates the error on line 679. I then checked for
file permissions in the c:\context directory tree and found no problems
there. My guess: the ./pdftex format path either doesn't exist or can't be
found by tex.rb and this generates the error. The ruby scripts of Context
are too large to do a full debug. I simply do not have the time for that.

So, after several hours of hacking I hope someone can solve this problem, so
I can finally give Context a try.

Regards,

Harrie Frericks
The Netherlands