Problems with Emacs 27.1 and org 9.6

Problem: Installing org 9.6 in Debian Bullseye’s Emacs 27.1

In my Debian Bullseye’s Emacs 27.1 a built-in org version is 9.3. Since I wanted to test new org-cite library which is built-in in 9.6 I needed to upgrade org.

Things didn’t go smoothly. My install-package.el script couldn’t handle that and all in all I was forced to perform in manually, still not without some problems.

Solution

After M-x list-packages I found on Melpa (package-initialize might be needed) required version of org, namely 9.6.1. Clicking on button “Install” didn’t work due to some errors. So the solution is to conduct package installation on bare Emacs instance Link. You need to start Emacs with -Q modifier:

emacs -Q

then M-x list-packages and installing by clicking “Install” button should go smoothly. Then you just need to start Emacs normally with your init file and everything should be fine.

[DEPRECATED - First Attempt] Problem and solution

Recently some problems appeared concerning Emacs and new version of org (9.6). First, there are some warnings about org-assert-version (https://github.com/syl20bnr/spacemacs/issues/15360). Another problem is related to ELPA repository (= IMPORTANT: please install Org from GNU ELPA as Org ELPA will close before Org 9.6=).

I tried to follow some advices presented in this link: https://www.reddit.com/r/emacs/comments/zd3l7p/org_mode_elpa_intall_invalid_function/. With no success.

One of the posts from the link above refers to some patch which is said to be here: https://list.orgmode.org/87bkonzisl.fsf@gnu.org/T/#u, but the page is too hard to decipher.

I don’t have the time to deal with so I’ll put upgrading Org off until some time and try to live with it now…