spacemacs fails to start on my emacs for android

[o8vm]

Description

spacemacs fails to start.

Reproduction guide 🪲

• Start Emacs

Observed behaviour: 👀 💔
failed to install vim-streamline

Expected behaviour: ❤️ 😄
success to install vim-streamline

System Info 💻

• OS: android
• Emacs: 30.0.50
• Spacemacs: 0.999.0
• Spacemacs branch: develop (rev. 99874da)
• Graphic display: t
• Running in daemon: nil
• Distribution: spacemacs
• Editing style: vim
• Completion: helm
• Layers:

(emacs-lisp helm multiple-cursors treemacs)

• System configuration features: GIF GMP GNUTLS HARFBUZZ JPEG LIBSELINUX LIBXML2 MODULES NOTIFY INOTIFY PDUMPER PNG SECCOMP SQLITE3 THREADS TIFF TREE_SITTER WEBP ZLIB

Backtrace 🐾

Loading /data/data/org.gnu.emacs/files/.spacemacs...done
Wrote /data/data/org.gnu.emacs/files/.emacs.d/recentf
(Spacemacs) --> refreshing package archive: melpa... [1/3]
Contacting host: melpa.org:443 [2 times]
Package refresh done
(Spacemacs) --> refreshing package archive: gnu... [2/3]
Contacting host: elpa.gnu.org:443 [2 times]
Package refresh done
(Spacemacs) --> refreshing package archive: nongnu... [3/3]
Contacting host: elpa.nongnu.org:443
Package refresh done
(Spacemacs) --> installing package: vim-powerline@spacemacs-modeline... [1/1]
Fetcher: file
Source: nil

/data/data/org.gnu.emacs/files/.emacs.d/.cache/quelpa/build/vim-powerline/vim-colors.el -> /data/data/org.gnu.emacs/cache/vim-powerline63osKy/vim-powerline-20240526.133057/vim-colors.el
/data/data/org.gnu.emacs/files/.emacs.d/.cache/quelpa/build/vim-powerline/vim-powerline-theme.el -> /data/data/org.gnu.emacs/cache/vim-powerline63osKy/vim-powerline-20240526.133057/vim-powerline-theme.el
Error getting PACKAGE-DESC: (file-missing Opening input file No such file or directory /data/data/org.gnu.emacs/files/.emacs.d/quelpa/packages/vim-powerline-20240526.133057.tar)
(Spacemacs) Error: 
An error occurred while installing vim-powerline (error: (wrong-type-argument package-desc nil))

.emacs.d/elpa/30.0/develop/evil-iedit-state-20220219.1432/evil-iedit-state-autoloads.el: Warning: ‘defadvice’ is an obsolete macro (as of 30.1); use ‘advice-add’ or ‘define-advice’
.emacs.d/elpa/30.0/develop/evil-mc-20230529.210/evil-mc.el: Warning: ‘defadvice’ is an obsolete macro (as of 30.1); use ‘advice-add’ or ‘define-advice’ [3 times]
Spacemacs is ready.
Skipping check for new version (reason: dotfile)
Loading /data/data/org.gnu.emacs/files/.emacs.d/.cache/recentf...done
Wrote /data/data/org.gnu.emacs/files/.emacs.d/.cache/recentf
Loading /data/data/org.gnu.emacs/files/.emacs.d/.cache/recentf...done
evil-line-move: End of buffer [2 times]
Wrote /data/data/org.gnu.emacs/files/.emacs.d/.cache/recentf
Loading /data/data/org.gnu.emacs/files/.emacs.d/.cache/recentf...done
evil-line-move: Beginning of buffer [9 times]
evil-line-move: Beginning of buffer
------
tar: Unknown option 'format=gnu' (see "tar --help")
------
 ■  Error (use-package): popwin/:config: Wrong type argument: listp, window-purpose/save-dedicated-windows
 ■  Error (use-package): window-purpose/:config: Assertion failed: (listp args)

tar is gnu tar1.35

[o8vm]

fix this issue by applying this patch: https://github.com/syl20bnr/spacemacs/pull/15653/files.
However, the warning below still exists:

 ■  Error (use-package): popwin/:config: Wrong type argument: listp, window-purpose/save-dedicated-windows
 ■  Error (use-package): window-purpose/:config: Assertion failed: (listp args)

[o8vm]

I referenced https://www.reddit.com/r/emacs/comments/156ncup/using_spacemacs_with_android_emacs/

[smile13241324]

I have had a look into your issue and it looks like you have an issue with quelpa, basically we configure the following:

(defun configuration-layer//configure-quelpa ()
  "Configure `quelpa' package."
  (with-eval-after-load 'quelpa
    (setq quelpa-verbose init-file-debug
          quelpa-dir (concat spacemacs-cache-directory "quelpa/")
          quelpa-build-dir (expand-file-name "build" quelpa-dir)
          quelpa-persistent-cache-file (expand-file-name "cache" quelpa-dir)
          quelpa-update-melpa-p nil
          quelpa-build-explicit-tar-format-p (eq (quelpa--tar-type) 'gnu)))) ;; this is causing your issue

This will tell quelpa to explicitly require the gnu format from a tar executable if it is a gnu tar. Quelpa will check the version of the executable and if it does not find it fallback to gnu.

(defun quelpa--tar-type ()
  "Return `bsd' or `gnu' depending on type of Tar executable.
Tests and sets variable `quelpa--tar-type' if not already set."
  (or quelpa--tar-type
      (when (and quelpa-build-tar-executable
                 (file-executable-p quelpa-build-tar-executable))
        (setq quelpa--tar-type
              (let ((v (shell-command-to-string
                        (format "%s --version" quelpa-build-tar-executable))))
                (cond ((string-match-p "bsdtar" v) 'bsd)
                      ((string-match-p "GNU tar" v) 'gnu)
                      (t 'gnu)))))))

What you need to do now:

• Check what the posted condition returns on your android device, I assume its something unknown triggering the fallback
• Then open a PR upstream to get the proper type

Once the given return type is not longer gnu spacemacs will stop requiring quelpa to set the format parameter and the commands should work on your OS.