Teniendo instalado rails3 y apache2 vamos a instalar passenger

$ gem install passenger
$ gem passenger-install-apache2-module

passenger irá guiando la instalación, si necesita dependencias y mostrara las lineas que hay que agregar a los archivos de configuración de apache

Please edit your Apache configuration file, and add these lines:
LoadModule passenger_module /usr/local/rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.2-p180/gems/passenger-3.0.7/ext/apache2/mod_passenger.so
   	PassengerRoot /usr/local/rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.2-p180/gems/passenger-3.0.7
   	PassengerRuby /usr/local/rvm/wrappers/ruby-1.9.2-p180/ruby

terminará con un mensaje similar a este

Suppose you have a Rails application in /somewhere. Add a virtual host to your
Apache configuration file and set its DocumentRoot to /somewhere/public:

   <VirtualHost *:80>
      ServerName www.yourhost.com
      DocumentRoot /somewhere/public    # <-- be sure to point to 'public'!
      <Directory /somewhere/public>
         AllowOverride all              # <-- relax Apache security settings
         Options -MultiViews            # <-- MultiViews must be turned off
      </Directory>
   </VirtualHost>

And that's it! You may also want to check the Users Guide for security and
optimization tips, troubleshooting and other useful information:

moverse al archivo de los mods de apache

$ cd /etc/apache2/mods-available

crear el archivo passenger.conf y agregar las lineas antes mostradas

PassengerRoot /usr/local/rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.2-p180/gems/passenger-3.0.7 PassengerRuby /usr/local/rvm/wrappers/ruby-1.9.2-p180/ruby

y passenger.load

LoadModule passenger_module /usr/local/rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.2-p180/gems/passenger-3.0.7/ext/apache2/mod_passenger.so

subir el modulo y reiniciar apache

$ sudo a2enmod passenger
$ sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart

crear el archivo de virtualhost

   <VirtualHost *:80>
      ServerName www.yourhost.com
      DocumentRoot /somewhere/public    # <-- be sure to point to 'public'!
      <Directory /somewhere/public>
         AllowOverride all              # <-- relax Apache security settings
         Options -MultiViews            # <-- MultiViews must be turned off
      </Directory>
   </VirtualHost>

Este es un punto importante, public debe ser el directorio public de la aplicación creada por rails.

###Referencias