[O] WARNING: No org-loaddefs.el file could be found from where org.el is loaded

[Yannick Lagrange]

I'd like to update my org-mode to the latest stable version and I am running into an issue which worries me enough to want to fix it; but I can't.

I'm using ubuntu 14.04 LTS, Emacs 24.3.1 which comes with org 7.9.3; for reasons unrelated to this question I'd like to update to the current version of org.

I tried to do this using the emacs packaging system. I fired up emacs with the -q option, then typed M-x package-install RET org, and org seemed to install fine, although a warning flashed up: "No org-loaddefs.el file could be found from where org.el is loaded". I ended up with a directory ~/.emacs.d/elpa/org-20170210/, which looked good, and when I fired up emacs again and typed M-x org-version I now got

Org mode version 9.0.5 (9.0.5-elpa @ /home/me/.emacs.d/elpa/org-20170210/)

so things looked fine. However when I tried to use org I got a warning in the emacs *Messages* buffer:

WARNING: No org-loaddefs.el file could be found from where org.el is loaded

You need to run "make" or "make autoloads" from the Org lisp directory

Of course I've googled for this, but the responses typically either say "you need to do what it says" or are too lisp-savvy for me to understand (I know 0 lisp).

The directory /home/me/.emacs.d/elpa/org-20170210/ does have an org-loaddefs.el file, and running make in that directory is as far as I can see pointless anyway because it's come from ELPA so there's no makefile or what have you. So it seems to me the warning is perhaps referring to /usr/share/emacs/24.3/lisp/org , but this is precisely where I don't want org to be looking (and I'm not sure I'm right about this because there is also an org-loaddefs.el file in that directory).

My .emacs is here:

***************************************

(require 'package)
(package-initialize)                ;; Initialize & Install Package
;;
(custom-set-variables
 ;; custom-set-variables was added by Custom.
 ;; If you edit it by hand, you could mess it up, so be careful.
 ;; Your init file should contain only one such instance.
 ;; If there is more than one, they won't work right.
 '(inhibit-startup-screen t)
 '(org-agenda-custom-commands nil)
 '(org-agenda-files (quote ("~/Encfs/org/")))
 '(org-agenda-start-on-weekday nil)
 '(org-agenda-time-grid (quote ((require-timed) "----------------" (800 1000 1200 1400 1600 1800 2000))))
 '(org-agenda-use-time-grid nil)
 '(org-startup-truncated nil))
(custom-set-faces
 ;; custom-set-faces was added by Custom.
 ;; If you edit it by hand, you could mess it up, so be careful.
 ;; Your init file should contain only one such instance.
 ;; If there is more than one, they won't work right.
 )
;; -*- mode: elisp -*-

;; Disable the splash screen (to enable it agin, replace the t with 0)
(setq inhibit-splash-screen t)

;; Enable transient mark mode
(transient-mark-mode 1)

;; 2015 suggested org activation commands
     (global-set-key "\C-cl" 'org-store-link)
     (global-set-key "\C-cc" 'org-capture)
     (global-set-key "\C-ca" 'org-agenda)
     (global-set-key "\C-cb" 'org-iswitchb)

;; YL setting up org capture mode (replaces remember)
     (setq org-directory "/home/me/Encfs/org")
     (setq org-default-notes-file (concat org-directory "/notes.org"))
     (define-key global-map "\C-cc" 'org-capture)
     (setq org-capture-templates
      '(
      ("h" "Home" entry (file+headline "~/Encfs/org/projects.org"
             "Home tasks") "* TODO %?\n" :clock-in t :clock-resume t)
      ("w" "Work" entry (file+headline "~/Encfs/org/projects.org"
             "Work tasks") "* TODO %?\n" :clock-in t :clock-resume t)
      ("t" "Tech" entry (file+headline "~/Encfs/org/projects.org"
             "Tech tasks") "* TODO %?\n" :clock-in t :clock-resume t)
      ("g" "General" entry (file+headline "~/Encfs/org/projects.org"
             "Tasks") "* TODO %?\n" :clock-in t :clock-resume t)
      ("r" "Reference" entry (file "~/Encfs/org/reference.org"
             "Tasks") "* %?\n" :clock-in t :clock-resume t)
      ))

***********************************

and I have no ~/.emacs.el or ~/.emacs.d/init.el .

How do I go about debugging what is going on?

Many thanks,

YL