First-time user: Error connecting/authenticating to GitHub - no commands work about teachers_pet

[PeterDaveHello]

Did you try to update your ruby on windows to latest?
This may help you I think:
Workaround RubyGems' SSL errors on Ruby for Windows (RubyInstaller)

[caratang]

Thank you for responding. That looks like the same error I'm getting, but I already have the new certificate mentioned as the fix in the workaround. I just installed Ruby a week or so ago in order to use teachers_pet.

Any other ideas appreciated.

[micskeiz]

I ran into the same problem, the following helped me.

The problem is that Ruby does not use the certificate store of the OS, and does not recognize the certificate authority (CA) who signed the SSL certificate of the api.github.com site (see explanation here: Why is Ruby unable to verify an SSL certificate?).

As of now (2015-08), api.github.com is signed by Digicert. Thus you have to specify that this is a trusted CA. This can be done in the SSL_CERT_FILE environment variable. All you need is the certificate of the CA in pem format. Luckily, version 2.1 of the Ruby install on Windows already contains this certificate. Thus in a command prompt execute:

set SSL_CERT_FILE=C:\Ruby21\lib\ruby\2.1.0\rubygems\ssl_certs\DigiCertHighAssuranceEVRootCA.pem

Now you can use teachers_pet in the same command prompt (the above does not persist the environment variable, it is only valid for this session).

[stephenlevitt]

@micskeiz Thanks for your advice! It helped me get teachers_pet running on Windows.