Allen Li <darkfeline@felesatra.moe> writes:

> package-recompile-all currently attempts to recompile all packages,
> including the system packages listed in package-directory-list.
>
> System packages are generally byte compiled as part of installation, and
> are not writeable by normal users.
>
> package-recompile-all attempts to recompile these, which will almost
> certainly error out due to this.
>
> It would be better if package-recompile-all only tries user installed
> packages (in package-user-dir), which are more likely to need
> recompilation.  Perhaps as a prefix arg option?

Would this patch resolve the issue for you: