diff --git a/manifests/init.pp b/manifests/init.pp
index 6860bda..35d1c6a 100644
--- a/manifests/init.pp
+++ b/manifests/init.pp
@@ -20,11 +20,11 @@ class elasticsearch (
   $url = 'https://download.elasticsearch.org/elasticsearch/elasticsearch',
   $heap_size = '16g',
   $es_template_config = {},
-) {
+) inherits elasticsearch::params {
   # Ensure: java runtime and curl
   # Curl is handy for talking to the ES API on localhost. Allows for
   # querying cluster state and deleting indexes and so on.
-  ensure_packages(['openjdk-7-jre-headless', 'curl'])
+  ensure_packages(['openjdk-7-jre-headless', 'curl', $::elasticsearch::params::gem_package])
 
   include '::archive'
 
diff --git a/manifests/params.pp b/manifests/params.pp
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2da50c0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/manifests/params.pp
@@ -0,0 +1,22 @@
+# Params class
+class elasticsearch::params (
+){
+
+
+  case $::osfamily {
+    'Debian': {
+      if $::lsbdistcodename == 'precise' {
+        # package names
+        $gem_package = 'rubygems'
+      } else {
+        # package names
+        $gem_package = 'ruby'
+      }
+    }
+    default: {
+      $gem_package = 'ruby'
+    }
+  }
+
+}
+