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I am trying to learn Emacs. I successfully installed it and went through the built-in tutorial. I thought that installing Spacemacs would be nice so I gave it a try.

I followed a tutorial and now I am stuck. First time I launched Spacemacs I got this

First time I launched Spacemacs

When I run emacs --debug-init, I get this

    Debugger entered--Lisp error: (wrong-type-argument stringp async)
  intern(async)
  package-desc-from-define(async "20200809.501" "Asynchronous processing in Emacs" '((emacs "24.3")) :commit "14f48de586b0977e3470f053b810d77b07ea427a" :authors (("John Wiegley" . "jwiegley@gmail.com")) :maintainer ("John Wiegley" . "jwiegley@gmail.com") :keywords ("convenience" "async") :url "https://github.com/jwiegley/emacs-async")
  apply(package-desc-from-define (async "20200809.501" "Asynchronous processing in Emacs" '((emacs "24.3")) :commit "14f48de586b0977e3470f053b810d77b07ea427a" :authors (("John Wiegley" . "jwiegley@gmail.com")) :maintainer ("John Wiegley" . "jwiegley@gmail.com") :keywords ("convenience" "async") :url "https://github.com/jwiegley/emacs-async"))
  package-process-define-package((define-package async "20200809.501" "Asynchronous processing in Emacs" '((emacs "24.3")) :commit "14f48de586b0977e3470f053b810d77b07ea427a" :authors (("John Wiegley" . "jwiegley@gmail.com")) :maintainer ("John Wiegley" . "jwiegley@gmail.com") :keywords ("convenience" "async") :url "https://github.com/jwiegley/emacs-async"))
  package-load-descriptor("/Users/dpalma/.emacs.d/elpa/27.1/develop/async-202...")
  package-load-all-descriptors()
  package-initialize(noactivate)
  (if package--initialized nil (setq configuration-layer-rollback-directory (configuration-layer/elpa-directory configuration-layer--rollback-root-directory)) (setq package-user-dir (configuration-layer/elpa-directory configuration-layer--elpa-root-directory)) (setq package-archives (configuration-layer//resolve-package-archives configuration-layer-elpa-archives)) (setq package-enable-at-startup nil) (package-initialize 'noactivate) (if (package-installed-p 'org-plus-contrib) (progn (spacemacs-buffer/message "Initializing Org early...") (configuration-layer//activate-package 'org-plus-contrib))))
  configuration-layer/initialize()
  spacemacs/init()
  (let ((file-name-handler-alist nil)) (require 'core-spacemacs) (spacemacs/dump-restore-load-path) (configuration-layer/load-lock-file) (spacemacs/init) (configuration-layer/stable-elpa-init) (configuration-layer/load) (spacemacs-buffer/display-startup-note) (spacemacs/setup-startup-hook) (spacemacs/dump-eval-delayed-functions) (if (and dotspacemacs-enable-server (not (spacemacs-is-dumping-p))) (progn (require 'server) (if dotspacemacs-server-socket-dir (progn (setq server-socket-dir dotspacemacs-server-socket-dir))) (if (server-running-p) nil (message "Starting a server...") (server-start)))))
  (if (not (version<= spacemacs-emacs-min-version emacs-version)) (error (concat "Your version of Emacs (%s) is too old. " "Spacemacs requires Emacs version %s or above.") emacs-version spacemacs-emacs-min-version) (let ((file-name-handler-alist nil)) (require 'core-spacemacs) (spacemacs/dump-restore-load-path) (configuration-layer/load-lock-file) (spacemacs/init) (configuration-layer/stable-elpa-init) (configuration-layer/load) (spacemacs-buffer/display-startup-note) (spacemacs/setup-startup-hook) (spacemacs/dump-eval-delayed-functions) (if (and dotspacemacs-enable-server (not (spacemacs-is-dumping-p))) (progn (require 'server) (if dotspacemacs-server-socket-dir (progn (setq server-socket-dir dotspacemacs-server-socket-dir))) (if (server-running-p) nil (message "Starting a server...") (server-start))))))
  eval-buffer(#<buffer  *load*> nil "/Users/dpalma/.emacs.d/init.el" nil t)  ; Reading at buffer position 1880
  load-with-code-conversion("/Users/dpalma/.emacs.d/init.el" "/Users/dpalma/.emacs.d/init.el" t t)
  load("/Users/dpalma/.emacs.d/init" noerror nomessage)
  startup--load-user-init-file(#f(compiled-function () #<bytecode 0x1ff1aea2e655>) #f(compiled-function () #<bytecode 0x1ff1aea2e66d>) t)
  command-line()
  normal-top-level()

I have macOS 11.0.1 and Emacs 27.1.

EDIT:

This seems to fix the issue.

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3
  • @Drew wow. My ultimate goal is to learn org-roam so can't I do it until this is fixed? Another thing that bothers me is that when I first closed Spacemacs to launch emacs in debug mode, I lost the ability to launch Spacemacs. Now when I launch Emacs.app, "plain Emacs" (maybe the term is not accurate) is what I see.
    – dpalo
    Dec 25 '20 at 9:45
  • Can't help you with that bug; sorry. Maybe you can just download the Elisp file(s) for the library/package you want, put them in a local directory, add that directory to your load-path, and require the library. At the end of the day, MELPA is essentially just a way to download Lisp files, and the "package" system is just a way to load them.
    – Drew
    Dec 25 '20 at 15:42
  • This Reddit thread has some discussion and workarounds for the bug (but I don't recommend trying the workarounds): reddit.com/r/emacs/comments/kjqqvo/…
    – Drew
    Dec 25 '20 at 15:48
1

See Emacs bug # 45415. It has the same backtrace as what you report.

But it's apparently a MELPA bug.

So I guess you just need to wait till the bug is fixed.

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