+4  A: 

Dreamhost won't let you use webrick if you're using shared hosting. You can either use FastCGI or Passenger to host Rails on shared DH (mongrel is an option if you upgrade to DreamhostPS, but that's obviously more expensive).

For FastCGI, you will need a dispatch.fcgi file (older versions of Rails would generate one when you created a new Rails app, but that stopped around 2.2 if I remember correctly) as well as code in your .htaccess to send requests to the dispatcher. See the Dreamhost Ruby on Rails wiki page for details about setting up FastCGI.

The more preferable option is to set up your application to run on Phusion Passenger (aka mod_rails). It should be pretty simple through your Dreamhost panel, you just need to enable the domain to use mod_rails, and then set the directory for the domain to the public directory of your application. See the Passenger wiki page for more details.

Daniel Vandersluis
well, that's what I actually did. I enabled mod_rails and pointed to the public directory.I keep getting an error http://screencast.com/t/KamqVawk
Roland Studer
What gets added to your log file when you try to access your site?
Daniel Vandersluis
as you see in my edit of the question, actually nothing gets recorded.
Roland Studer
It is possible that your account is not yet set up for mod_rails. I would contact DH support, because as far as I can see (could you add a screenshot of the domain edit page?), you've done everything correctly.
Daniel Vandersluis
I'll do that.Thanx a lot for your help.
Roland Studer
As I assumed, the options in the screenshot look right to me. I'm sure DH support can take it from here :)
Daniel Vandersluis
I'm not sure, what to do. The answer seems to be right, but didn't help me with my specific problem. So I'm not sure, if I should mark it as correct.
Roland Studer