Subject: bug#40923: M-x list-packages -> blah elpa.gnu.org blah: "incomprehensible buffer"

From: Eduardo Ochs <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 2 May 2020 09:51:31 +0100

Hi, sorry for the delay...

Long story short: the Emacs that comes in Debian Stable - 26.1 -
cannot access ELPA when we run `M-x list-packages', and:

  1) this MAY BE due to a quirk in
     <https://elpa.gnu.org/packages/archive-contents>,

  2) I can't find a workaround that I can recommend to beginners.

I'll write about 26.3 in another message.

Now: long story long. I rewrote my tests in a format - using eev-isms
- that lets me re-execute them again very quickly without or with
modifications. Here are the commands; note that I am running them in
Debian Stable (a.k.a. "Buster").

  su - eduardo
    <p455w0rd>
  rm -Rfv .emacs*
  rm -Rfv .gnupg
  ls -lAF
  emacs --version
  apt-cache show emacs
    # Version: 1:26.1+1-3.2+deb10u1
    # See also: https://packages.debian.org/buster/emacs

  cat > o <<'%%%'
  (list-packages)
  (setq gnutls-algorithm-priority "NORMAL:-VERS-TLS1.3")
  (list-packages)
  %%%

  emacs -nw o
    M-x list-packages

If I run `M-x list-packages' - or if I type C-e C-x C-e in the first
line - it does not list anything from ELPA and gives this error:

  error in process sentinel: Error retrieving:
  https://elpa.gnu.org/packages/archive-contents "incomprehensible
  buffer"

If I then run the (setq ...) above, as suggested here,

  https://www.reddit.com/r/emacs/comments/cdf48c/failed_to_download_gnu_archive/

nothing changes, in the sense that if I then execute the
`(list-packages)' in the third line with C-e C-x C-e I still don't get
anything from ELPA, and I get the error "incomprehensible buffer".

I was working on the script of a screencast that would start with
instructions for installing a package from ELPA, but I am quite
embarassed by this bug... so I interrupted everything to discuss the
bug.

Is anyone else here able to reproduce it? Are there any easy fixes?
Are there any easy fixes that you would recommend to beginners who
happen to be using Debian Stable? Compiling a more recent Emacs from
git is not an "easy fix"...

  Cheers,
    Eduardo Ochs
    http://angg.twu.net/emacsconf2019.html

On Tue, 28 Apr 2020 at 18:43, Noam Postavsky <[email-masked]> wrote:
>
> Does 26.3 still fail if you start from a fresh .emacs.d/ directory?  I
> think there were some encoding related fixes made in package.el for
> 26.3, but they may not help with existing mis-encoded files.