New Emacs 30.1 broken

[palbarede]

After update with Add/Remove Software (pamac), Emacs version changed from 29.4 to 30.1 (GNU Emacs 30.1 (build 2, x86_64-pc-linux-gnu, GTK+ Version 3.24.49, cairo version 1.18.4)) and a problem appeared.

Steps to reproduce:

• Use some init.el, for example, an empty file. (emacs -q would not be enough.)
• Launch Emacs, then C-h i, scroll down to any manual entry, for example, Emacs and type Enter.
• The manual won’t open and this error message shows:

byte-code: Cannot open load file: No such file or directory, compat-26

Can you confirm?

How to repair?

The manual opens after typing mEmacs: not a path problem.

Same with emacs -nw: not a GTK problem.

Reinstalling Emacs did not help.

Going back to Emacs 29.4 solves the problem.

[linux-aarhus]

@palbarede

Can you confirm?

No

guessing - a hardened system with home on separate partition mounted with noexec ?

In that case the issue is self inflicted - solution is to remove the noexec from your home mount and complain upstream.

[Aragorn]

@linux-aarhus

@palbarede

Can you confirm?

No

I have emacs-nox, and I cannot confirm it either. Everything works normal here.

[palbarede]

I tried emacs-nox, same. My system is on a single partition. No problem in previous system and Emacs 29.4.

[linux-aarhus]

 $ mbn info emacs -q | grep -e 'Version' -e 'Branch'
Branch         : archlinux
Version        : 30.1-4
Branch         : unstable
Version        : 30.1-4
Branch         : testing
Version        : 30.1-3
Branch         : stable
Version        : 30.1-3

I can’t say if the fact that I am using unstable has anything to do with it.

As I recall @Aragorn uses stable branch - which would then make it the same as yours (your profile says stable branch).

[Aragorn]

@linux-aarhus

As I recall @Aragorn uses stable branch

Thou art correct, Sir.

[palbarede]

I use unstable branch (I have modified my profile accordingly, thanks for noticing).

Using my recovery procedure, I was able to reset my system to its previous state that is about 4 weeks old. So I am back to Emacs 29.4 which is fine.

If I try to update again, I have again messages “invalid or corrupted database (PGP signature)”. I could overcome this (using various related posts on this forum, after many attempts). Could this eventually break Emacs 30.1?

After update, Pamac confirmed “your system is up to date”.

[palbarede]

I did it all over again from my one-month-old Manjaro with Emacs 29.4. Pamac gave error

invalid or corrupted database (PGP signature)
failed to synchronize databases

I did

sudo rm -R /var/lib/pacman/sync
sudo -E pacman -Syu

Again Emacs 30.1 started with empty or no init file (not emacs -q) is broken: after C-h i, menu items cannot be opened by Enter or click on them.

I run Pamac, refresh databases and update, many packages (not Emacs) are updated.

Your system is up to date 
Last refresh : 00:27:32

GNU Emacs 30.1 (build 2, x86_64-pc-linux-gnu, GTK+ Version 3.24.49,
cairo version 1.18.4)
still broken.

What can be done to improve?

[palbarede]

I have tried Emacs from Flatpak and the problem is the same.

[ehhen]

It may not be of any use at all, but I was looking at it and it caught my attention.

• Fresh install (KVM) - ZETAR KDE

• Usual main Manjaro STABLE BRANCH - Cinnamon

I was curious, so I installed emacs.

It seems to work normally in my two environments.

❱ emacs --version
GNU Emacs 30.1
Copyright (C) 2025 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
GNU Emacs comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.
You may redistribute copies of GNU Emacs
under the terms of the GNU General Public License.
For more information about these matters, see the file named COPYING.

❱ emacs ~/.bashrc

❱ LC_ALL=C pamac remove emacs
Preparing...
Checking dependencies...

To remove (6):
  emacs        30.1-3                                           extra
  tree-sitter  0.25.3-1                     (Orphan Of: emacs)  extra
  libgccjit    14.2.1+r753+g1cd744a6828f-1  (Orphan Of: emacs)  core
  m17n-lib     1.8.4-4                      (Orphan Of: emacs)  extra
  libotf       0.9.16-5                     (Orphan Of: emacs)  extra
  m17n-db      1.8.8-1                      (Orphan Of: emacs)  extra

Total removed size: 321.5 MB

Apply transaction ? [y/N] y

[palbarede]

I have tried Pamac emacs-git version 30.0.5, still the same problem.

[ehhen]

@palbarede
By the way.

Why don’t you try to create a new user and see what happens in emacs? It might be worth checking if the same symptoms appear as before.

You may have already checked it.

useradd, logout, login with newuser.

[palbarede]

I have tried Pamac emacs29-git and the problem is gone!

GNU Emacs 29.4.50 (build 1, x86_64-pc-linux-gnu, GTK+ Version 3.24.49,
cairo version 1.18.4) of 2025-03-17

However I have this warning:

You are trying to run Emacs configured with the “pure-GTK” interface under the X window system. That configuration is unsupported and will lead to sporadic crashes during trnsfer of large selection data. It will also lea to various problems with keyboard input.

I did not have such problems but I can use -nw to avoid them.

[palbarede]

I try Flatpak version as a new user and I do not see the problem!

Indeed my .emacs-d contain a lot of files apart from init.el.

The culprits are .emacs-d/elpa/dash*. In Elpa, I removed dash (marked obsolete even after upgrade), and also magit, kubernetes that depend on it. I don’t need them. This solves the problem.

My mistake was to forget Emacs packaging system which adds to init.el.