Will this work?
Take a ring of say, nickel or chrome plated steel, 18"OD, 1/8" thick, 6" high. Place 1 inch dia. neodymium rod magnets, 5 or 6 inches long, magnetized through the length, with all the same poles facing the same direction, on the ring, perpendicular to the "run" of the ring. Place enough magnets around the perimeter of the ring to start pushing each other around the ring. Would the force of attraction to the steel override the repelling force?
If this would push each magnet closer to the next, forcing them to roll around the perimeter, one could then place coils closely around the perimeter to generate DC current, right?
Or does the attraction to the ring override the repelling force?

I'm not sure I understand the mechanism you're trying to describe. It seems you have a metal cylinder with smaller cylindrical magnets laid up against the inside of the large cylinder, and you're wondering if the magnets will all start rolling around the inside of the hub, correct? I don't understand why the large cylinder is steel - why not plastic? But in any event, no the magnets won't start chasing each other. Starting with them in equilibrium they would all be evenly spaced apart, with opposing forces from magnets on either side balancing out. If you disturb one of the magnets, say to the left, it will cause a greater opposing force on the magnet to the left and lesser force to the magnet on the right, and the result is that all the magnets move. But the magnet you disturbed feels a greater force from the left and lesser from the right, and so on its own it wants to move back to where it started. So unless you apply an outside force to cause that magnet to keep moving to the left it will not keep moving left, but rather will be pushed back to the right. At best you'd end up with all the magnets vibrating in harmonic motion.

A permanent magnet generator is a device that converts mechanical energy to electrical energy. In this device the rotor windings have been replaced with permanent magnets.