Can't find emacs package on Debian

Question

I need help to install emacs on my Debian 7.2 system. I have looked at many other forms and cannot get emacs to install.

I have tried running "sudo apt-get install emacs", "sudo apt-get install emacs23", any other way to type emacs.

I have also tried which returns a couple 404 errors.

sudo apt-get update
W: Failed to fetch http://ppa.launchpad.net/cassou/emacs/ubuntu/dists/wheezy/main/binary-i386/Packages  404  Not Found

E: Some index files failed to download. They have been ignored, or old ones used instead.

jon@debian:~$ apt-cache policy 
Package files:
 100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     release a=now
 500 http://emacs.naquadah.org/ stable/ Packages
     release o=jd,a=stable,n=stable,l=jd,c=
     origin emacs.naquadah.org
 500 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise-security/main Translation-en
 500 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise-security/main i386 Packages
     release v=12.04,o=Ubuntu,a=precise-security,n=precise,l=Ubuntu,c=main
     origin security.ubuntu.com
Pinned packages:
jon@debian:~$ apt-cache policy emacs
emacs:
  Installed: (none)
  Candidate: 23.3+1-1ubuntu9.1
  Version table:
     23.3+1-1ubuntu9.1 0
        500 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise-security/main i386 Packages

What commands do I need to run or what files should I remove or modify?

Answer 1

I would try to add an entry in my sources.list file (https://wiki.debian.org/SourcesList). This tells apt-get where to get it's package list from.

Answer 2

It looks like you followed some instructions meant for Ubuntu, not Debian, to allow you to install development snapshots of Emacs. apt-get therefore adds in (the Debian-specific) dists/wheezy, but that makes a URL that doesn't exist.

First, remove the PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository -r ppa:cassou/emacs

Next, you have a few choices. If you just want the stable (but fairly old) Emacs 23, you should now be able to simply apt-get install emacs. If you'd rather have bleeding-edge snapshots, you can follow the instructions at http://emacs.naquadah.org/ for stable:

1. Run wget -q -O - http://emacs.naquadah.org/key.gpg | sudo apt-key add -

2. Add these to /etc/apt/sources.list:

   deb http://emacs.naquadah.org/ stable/
   deb-src http://emacs.naquadah.org/ stable/
   

3. Run sudo apt-get update.

4. Run sudo apt-get install emacs-snapshot (substituting whichever more specific Emacs package as desired).

Answer 3

Something is wrong with your system and / or state files.

I always install emacs, and eg on this Debian testing box have

edd@billie:~$ apt-cache policy emacs23
emacs23:
  Installed: (none)
  Candidate: 23.4+1-4.1
  Version table:
     23.4+1-4.1 0
        500 http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ testing/main i386 Packages
edd@billie:~$ 

This shows a) that the package is installed, b) what the candidate version is, c) that the installed version is the same (ie I am current)) and d) where it all came from.

Answer 4

Unfortunately emacs-snapshot is no longer maintained as of 11 Jan 2014. If you want a newer emacs than that provided by the "official" package=emacs (which IIRC is version=23), try package=emacs24 from testing or sid. I use LMDE UP8 (currently here), so have

$ apt-cache policy emacs24
emacs24:
  Installed: 24.3+1-2
  Candidate: 24.3+1-2
  Version table:
 *** 24.3+1-2 0
        500 http://mirrors.xmission.com/linuxmint-debian/latest/ testing/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

$ lsalh /etc/apt/
-rw-r--r--   1 root root   35 Feb 27 11:46 apt.conf
drwxr-xr-x   2 root root 4.0K Mar 21 21:55 apt.conf.d
-rw-r--r--   1 root root 2.1K May  5  2013 apt-file.conf
drwxr-xr-x   2 root root 4.0K Feb 27 12:58 preferences.d
-rw-r--r--   1 root root   23 Feb 27 12:59 sources.list
drwxr-xr-x   2 root root 4.0K Mar 28 19:47 sources.list.d
-rw-r--r--   1 root root  17K Mar 28 19:47 trusted.gpg
-rw-r--r--   1 root root  15K Feb 27 12:53 trusted.gpg~
drwxr-xr-x   2 root root 4.0K Mar 28 19:47 trusted.gpg.d

$ cat /etc/apt/sources.list
#/etc/apt/sources.list

$ lsalh /etc/apt/sources.list.d/
...
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  176 Mar 28 19:47 google-chrome.list
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  387 Mar 21 21:52 official-package-repositories.list

$ cat /etc/apt/sources.list.d/official-package-repositories.list 
deb http://packages.linuxmint.com debian main upstream import 

deb http://mirrors.xmission.com/linuxmint-debian/latest/ testing main contrib non-free
deb http://mirrors.xmission.com/linuxmint-debian/latest/security testing/updates main contrib non-free
deb http://mirrors.xmission.com/linuxmint-debian/latest/multimedia testing main non-free

deb http://extra.linuxmint.com debian main

but you can get the same package from official repos.