Issue with aurora-susy gem

Moving from the previous gem to the current gem changed the partial structure precisely as you suggested, so how you suggested to solve it is precisely how it's designed to work. That will solve your issue.

Adding

add_import_path "/Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/compass-aurora-1.0.2/stylesheets"

to my config.rb seems to get me past the aurora/susy-grid include failure and onto a failure loading toolkit...

error sass/style.scss (Line 1 of _aurora.scss: File to import not found or unreadable: toolkit.
Load paths:
/Applications/MAMP/htdocs/txmo/sites/all/themes/txmo_aurora/sass
/Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/compass-0.12.2/frameworks/blueprint/stylesheets
/Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/compass-0.12.2/frameworks/compass/stylesheets
/Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/compass-aurora-1.0.2/stylesheets
Compass::SpriteImporter)

Which is of course, like the other gems, available...

Davids-MacBook-Pro:txmo_aurora davidfells$ gem list toolkit

*** LOCAL GEMS ***

toolkit (0.2.1.3)

Okay davidfells, what I'd like you to do is run the following commands and paste me the results:

ruby -v
which ruby
gem list

I'd also like to know what OS you're on, the exact contents of your config.rb file, and how you created your subtheme (did you create it following the instructions provided? If so, what options did you use?). I'd also like you to, now that you aren't in RVM, to go to your themes directory and run compass create test -r aurora --using aurora/susy and if that works, go into that folder and try and compile.

Theme was created by someone else but following the directions. Trying to create a subtheme gives me the results I'd expect since it can't find any of the gems...

Davids-MacBook-Pro:themes davidfells$ compass create test -r aurora --using aurora/susy
No such framework: "aurora"

Here's the requested ruby data

avids-MacBook-Pro:themes davidfells$ ruby -v
ruby 1.8.7 (2012-02-08 patchlevel 358) [universal-darwin12.0]
Davids-MacBook-Pro:themes davidfells$ which ruby
/usr/bin/ruby
Davids-MacBook-Pro:themes davidfells$ gem list

*** LOCAL GEMS ***

activesupport (3.2.9, 3.1.8)
aurora (0.2.0)
breakpoint (1.3)
bundler (1.2.3)
chunky_png (1.2.6)
compass (0.12.2)
compass-aurora (1.0.2)
compass-normalize (1.4.2)
erubis (2.7.0)
extlib (0.9.15)
fssm (0.2.9)
halcyon (0.5.4)
i18n (0.6.1)
json_pure (1.7.5)
merb-core (1.1.3)
mime-types (1.19)
modular-scale (1.0.2)
multi_json (1.5.0, 1.2.0)
rack (1.4.1)
rake (10.0.3)
respond-to (2.6)
rubigen (1.5.8)
sass (3.2.3)
sassy-buttons (0.1.4)
sassy-math (1.2)
singularitygs (0.0.17)
susy (1.0.5)
toolkit (0.2.1.3)

OSX Mountain Lion, config.rb:

# Require any additional compass plugins here.
require 'aurora'

# Set this to the root of your project when deployed:
http_path = "/sites/all/themes/txmo-aurora"
css_dir = "css"
sass_dir = "sass"
images_dir = "images"
javascripts_dir = "js"
fonts_dir = "fonts"

# To enable relative paths to assets via compass helper functions. Since Drupal
# themes can be installed in multiple locations, we don't need to worry about
# the absolute path to the theme from the server root.
relative_assets = true

# To disable debugging comments that display the original location of your selectors. Uncomment:
line_comments = false

# Assuming this theme is in sites/*/themes/THEMENAME, you can add the partials
# included with a module by uncommenting and modifying one of the lines below:
#add_import_path "../../../default/modules/FOO"
#add_import_path "../../../all/modules/FOO"
#add_import_path "../../../../modules/FOO"

# If you prefer the indented syntax, you might want to regenerate this
# project again passing --syntax sass, or you can uncomment this:
# preferred_syntax = :sass
# and then run:
# sass-convert -R --from scss --to sass sass scss && rm -rf sass && mv scss sass

# Change this to :production when ready to deploy the CSS to the live server.
environment = :development
#environment = :production

# In development, we can turn on the debug_info to use with FireSass or Chrome Web Inspector.
debug = false
#debug = true

##
## You probably don't need to edit anything below this.
##

# Disable cache busting on image assets
asset_cache_buster :none

# You can select your preferred output style here (can be overridden via the command line):
# output_style = :expanded or :nested or :compact or :compressed
output_style = (environment == :development) ? :expanded : :compressed

# Pass options to sass. For development, we turn on the FireSass-compatible
# debug_info if the debug config variable above is true.
sass_options = (environment == :development && debug == true) ? {:debug_info => true} : {}

Do you use the Aurora gem? Not the compass-aurora gem, but the Aurora gem? There are two Aurora gems in existence, mine which is Compass Aurora, and a four year old auth system for Ruby projects simply called Aurora. It appears as if you have the Auth Aurora installed as well, and because A comes before C, Compass finds that gem first, which is where everything falls apart. If you're not using it, uninstall it (gem uninstall aurora) and you should be good to go. If you are using it for something, look into Bundler to manage exactly what gems should be used in your project

Thanks Snugug, I just came here to post that removing "aurora" and leaving "compass-aurora" fixed the problem. That might be worth noting in the documentation - I'd installed aurora previously before I discovered this theme.

I'm just looking at an existing Aurora subtheme's config.rb and if require 'aurora' is auto-generated somewhere, would it make sense to change that to require 'compass-aurora' to prevent this conflict?

It should never have been `require 'aurora'`, always `require 'compass-aurora'`. Changing this should solve whatever issue your'e having.