Re: w3m-el-snapshot installation

[Tim X]

Haines Brown <haines@HistoricalMaterialism.info> writes:

> Michael Heerdegen <michael_heerdegen@web.de> writes:
>
>> Haines,
>>
>>
>>> > /usr/lib/emacsen-common/packages/install/w3m-el-snapshot emacs23
>>>
>>> Michael, yes, the output was indeed interesting:
>>>
>>> First, nothing happens
>>>
>>>   $ /usr/lib/emacsen-common/packages/install/w3m-el-snapshot emacs23 
>>>   $
>
>> That means that you would have a directory 
>> /usr/share/emacs23/site-lisp/w3m-e21.el" on your system.  If that's
>> true, we must get rid of it.  Do you have it?
>
> Yes, I do have the emacs23 directory (and also an emacs directory). I
> rename it and try again. Same results:
>  
>   $ /usr/lib/emacsen-common/packages/install/w3m-el-snapshot emacs23
>   $
>
>> If you want to have a look behind the scenes, 
>
> Not being a programmer, amateur or otherwise, looking behind the scenes
> is likely to be uninformative, I'm sorry to say. 
>
>> If you have installed debian-el, you'll see which files it installs, and
>> the scripts that are run when installing, removing etc.
>>
>> (Besides: You may consider to upgrade to Debian testing.  I think stable
>> primarily aims at servers, it has very out of date software. testing is also
>> very "stable" and probably the better choice for daily usage.
>
> But surely, there must be a huge number of people successfully running
> stable emacs23 with w3m-el-snapshot. This suggests I have something
> broken in my system, and I feel I should fix it or file a bug report,
> not just reinstall and hope for the best.
>

I agree that it must be something specific with your setup. Finding it
is the challenge. 

When you have removed w3m-snapshot, have you made sure you have 'purged'
the package and not just removed it? Deb packaging has the concept of
remove as well as purge. Just removing a packages does not remove all
the config files. If the problem is due to something with the config
files, re-installing after only a remove rather than a purge likely
won't fix the problem. 

I'm assuming your using the official debian snapshot package and not
just some other emacs23 package. Have you checked the debian bug tracker
for w3m-snapshot and emacs23? This may have some details. 

Try apt-get --purge remove w3m-snapshot-el (or whatever the package name
is). Then make sure there are no w3m directories in
/usr/share/emacs/site-lisp, /usr/share/emacs23/site-lisp - remove them
if there are. Make sure there are no w3m-el files in
/etc/emacs/site-lisp.d or /etc/emacs23/site-lisp.d (If you don't like
removing them, move them to somewhere else - you can then move them back
if necessary). 

Have you tried getting help from a debian specific forum? The problem
your experiencing is debian specific while this forum is general emacs.
You may get more specific assistance in a debian specific forum where
there are more people familiar with deb packages. There are a few
commands for apt-get that can sometimes help, such as options like fix
broken and dist-upgrade that will sometimes help get things working
again. Its been a while since I've run debian, but something like 

apt-get -f install
apt-get --fix-missing install
apt-get clean all
apt-get update
apt-get upgrade
apt-get dist-upgrade
apt-get clean all
apt-get autoremove

may help ensure your system is in a healthy state. 

The very first step should be to check the debain bug tracker for
emacs23 and w3m-snapshot-el. If this is a known bug, you will often find
a solution in addition to the bug description. 

If all else fails, I'd strongly recommend just installing from the git
repository on github for w3m-el. It is really quite easy and not
something you should be concerned about due to lack of familiarity with
programming. Essentially, you just donwload the sources, run a
./configure script and put some setup stuff in your .emacs. 

Tim
-- 
tcross (at) rapttech dot com dot au