Passenger on Apache fails at Initialize Language Runtime

Question

I am deploying a Ruby on Rails 5.2 app on Ubuntu 16.04 running Apache2 and Passenger 6.0.1 with rvm 1.29.7 in single user mode. I can't seem to get the app to start up with the following failures in the subprocess "Initialize Language Runtime". I've exhausted my search on anyone having a similar problem, so I'm thinking there is something unique to my installation. I'm providing as many details as I think are relevant below, but let me know if you need additional information to help me solve this one:

Here is /var/log/apache2/error.log after I attempt to restart apache:

[Thu Jan 31 03:55:14.310845 2019] [mpm_prefork:notice] [pid 12051] AH00173: SIGHUP received.  Attempting to restart

[ N 2019-01-31 03:55:14.3335 14690/T9 age/Cor/CoreMain.cpp:671 ]: Signal received. Gracefully shutting down... (send signal 2 more time(s) to force shutdown)
[ N 2019-01-31 03:55:14.3337 14690/T1 age/Cor/CoreMain.cpp:1245 ]: Received command to shutdown gracefully. Waiting until all clients have disconnected...
[ N 2019-01-31 03:55:14.3338 14690/Tb Ser/Server.h:902 ]: [ApiServer] Freed 0 spare client objects
[ N 2019-01-31 03:55:14.3338 14690/Tb Ser/Server.h:558 ]: [ApiServer] Shutdown finished
[ N 2019-01-31 03:55:14.3339 14690/T9 Ser/Server.h:902 ]: [ServerThr.1] Freed 0 spare client objects
[ N 2019-01-31 03:55:14.3339 14690/T9 Ser/Server.h:558 ]: [ServerThr.1] Shutdown finished
[ N 2019-01-31 03:55:14.3618 19760/T1 age/Wat/WatchdogMain.cpp:1366 ]: Starting Passenger watchdog...
[ N 2019-01-31 03:55:14.3875 19763/T1 age/Cor/CoreMain.cpp:1339 ]: Starting Passenger core...
[ N 2019-01-31 03:55:14.3878 19763/T1 age/Cor/CoreMain.cpp:256 ]: Passenger core running in multi-application mode.
[ N 2019-01-31 03:55:14.3949 19763/T1 age/Cor/CoreMain.cpp:1014 ]: Passenger core online, PID 19763
[Thu Jan 31 03:55:14.415668 2019] [mpm_prefork:notice] [pid 12051] AH00163: Apache/2.4.18 (Ubuntu) Phusion_Passenger/6.0.1 OpenSSL/1.0.2g configured -- resuming normal operations
[Thu Jan 31 03:55:14.415804 2019] [core:notice] [pid 12051] AH00094: Command line: '/usr/sbin/apache2'
[ N 2019-01-31 03:55:14.8130 14690/T1 age/Cor/CoreMain.cpp:1324 ]: Passenger core shutdown finished
[ N 2019-01-31 03:55:16.8669 19763/Tb age/Cor/SecurityUpdateChecker.h:519 ]: Security update check: no update found (next check in 24 hours)

Here is my environment:

ubuntu@ip-172-31-13-212:~$ env
XDG_SESSION_ID=20
rvm_bin_path=/home/ubuntu/.rvm/bin
TERM=xterm-256color
SHELL=/bin/bash
SSH_CLIENT=173.52.197.236 49586 22
SSH_TTY=/dev/pts/2
rvm_stored_umask=0002
USER=ubuntu
LS_COLORS=rs=0:di=01;34:ln=01;36:mh=00:pi=40;33:so=01;35:do=01;35:bd=40;33;01:cd=40;33;01:or=40;31;01:mi=00:su=37;41:sg=30;43:ca=30;41:tw=30;42:ow=34;42:st=37;44:ex=01;32:*.tar=01;31:*.tgz=01;31:*.arc=01;31:*.arj=01;31:*.taz=01;31:*.lha=01;31:*.lz4=01;31:*.lzh=01;31:*.lzma=01;31:*.tlz=01;31:*.txz=01;31:*.tzo=01;31:*.t7z=01;31:*.zip=01;31:*.z=01;31:*.Z=01;31:*.dz=01;31:*.gz=01;31:*.lrz=01;31:*.lz=01;31:*.lzo=01;31:*.xz=01;31:*.bz2=01;31:*.bz=01;31:*.tbz=01;31:*.tbz2=01;31:*.tz=01;31:*.deb=01;31:*.rpm=01;31:*.jar=01;31:*.war=01;31:*.ear=01;31:*.sar=01;31:*.rar=01;31:*.alz=01;31:*.ace=01;31:*.zoo=01;31:*.cpio=01;31:*.7z=01;31:*.rz=01;31:*.cab=01;31:*.jpg=01;35:*.jpeg=01;35:*.gif=01;35:*.bmp=01;35:*.pbm=01;35:*.pgm=01;35:*.ppm=01;35:*.tga=01;35:*.xbm=01;35:*.xpm=01;35:*.tif=01;35:*.tiff=01;35:*.png=01;35:*.svg=01;35:*.svgz=01;35:*.mng=01;35:*.pcx=01;35:*.mov=01;35:*.mpg=01;35:*.mpeg=01;35:*.m2v=01;35:*.mkv=01;35:*.webm=01;35:*.ogm=01;35:*.mp4=01;35:*.m4v=01;35:*.mp4v=01;35:*.vob=01;35:*.qt=01;35:*.nuv=01;35:*.wmv=01;35:*.asf=01;35:*.rm=01;35:*.rmvb=01;35:*.flc=01;35:*.avi=01;35:*.fli=01;35:*.flv=01;35:*.gl=01;35:*.dl=01;35:*.xcf=01;35:*.xwd=01;35:*.yuv=01;35:*.cgm=01;35:*.emf=01;35:*.ogv=01;35:*.ogx=01;35:*.aac=00;36:*.au=00;36:*.flac=00;36:*.m4a=00;36:*.mid=00;36:*.midi=00;36:*.mka=00;36:*.mp3=00;36:*.mpc=00;36:*.ogg=00;36:*.ra=00;36:*.wav=00;36:*.oga=00;36:*.opus=00;36:*.spx=00;36:*.xspf=00;36:
rvm_path=/home/ubuntu/.rvm
rvm_prefix=/home/ubuntu
MAIL=/var/mail/ubuntu
PATH=/home/ubuntu/bin:/home/ubuntu/.local/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games:/usr/local/games:/snap/bin:/home/ubuntu/.rvm/bin:/home/ubuntu/.rvm/bin
rvm_loaded_flag=1
PWD=/home/ubuntu
LANG=en_US.UTF-8
rvm_version=1.29.7-next (master)
SHLVL=1
HOME=/home/ubuntu
LOGNAME=ubuntu
XDG_DATA_DIRS=/usr/local/share:/usr/share:/var/lib/snapd/desktop
SSH_CONNECTION=173.52.197.236 49586 172.31.13.212 22
LESSOPEN=| /usr/bin/lesspipe %s
XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=/run/user/1000
LESSCLOSE=/usr/bin/lesspipe %s %s
rvm_user_install_flag=1
_=/usr/bin/env

Answer 1

I found the answer to this issue thanks to the folks supporting the Passenger opensource project. It turns out that in my virtual host file for Apache, the path I provided for PassengerRuby was pointing to a nonexistent ruby. You can read about it here: https://github.com/phusion/passenger/issues/2179