Cannot start spacemacs if elpa.gnu.org is down

[brabalan]

I just restarted Spacemacs and it will not finish loading with the following:

Warning (initialization): An error occurred while loading `/Users/schmitta/.emacs.d/init.el':

File error: make client process failed, connection refused, :name, elpa.gnu.org, :buffer, #<killed buffer>, :host, elpa.gnu.org, :service, 443, :nowait, nil

To ensure normal operation, you should investigate and remove the
cause of the error in your initialization file.  Start Emacs with
the `--debug-init' option to view a complete error backtrace.

Looking at the *Messages* buffer I see this:

(Spacemacs) --> refreshing package archive: melpa... [1/3]
Contacting host: melpa.org:443
Importing package-keyring.gpg...done
Contacting host: melpa.org:443
(Spacemacs) --> refreshing package archive: org... [2/3]
Contacting host: orgmode.org:80
Importing package-keyring.gpg...done
(Spacemacs) --> refreshing package archive: gnu... [3/3]
Spacemacs is ready.
Loading /Users/schmitta/.emacs.d/recentf...done
Cleaning up the recentf list...done (0 removed)
cond: Symbol's function definition is void: projectile-mode
Symbol's function definition is void: projectile-mode

Starting with --debug-init confirms the bug comes from elpa.gnu.org being down:

Debugger entered--Lisp error: (file-error "make client process failed" "connection refused" :name "elpa.gnu.org" :buffer #<buffer  *url-http-temp*> :host "elpa.gnu.org" :service 443 :nowait nil)
  make-network-process(:name "elpa.gnu.org" :buffer #<buffer  *url-http-temp*> :host "elpa.gnu.org" :service 443 :nowait nil)
  open-network-stream("elpa.gnu.org" #<buffer  *url-http-temp*> "elpa.gnu.org" 443)
  open-gnutls-stream("elpa.gnu.org" #<buffer  *url-http-temp*> "elpa.gnu.org" 443)
  network-stream-open-tls("elpa.gnu.org" #<buffer  *url-http-temp*> "elpa.gnu.org" 443 (:type tls :nowait t))
  open-network-stream("elpa.gnu.org" #<buffer  *url-http-temp*> "elpa.gnu.org" 443 :type tls :nowait t)
…

[axyz]

+1

[nixmaniack]

Since I track develop, only uuidgen package was missing for me(which is on melpa) since last update. So the workaround for me was comment elpa.gnu.org, restart emacs, let it download, uncomment elpa. Back to work.

diff --git a/core/core-configuration-layer.el b/core/core-configuration-layer.el
index 4b57943..218c385 100644
--- a/core/core-configuration-layer.el
+++ b/core/core-configuration-layer.el
@@ -132,7 +132,8 @@
 (defvar configuration-layer--elpa-archives
   '(("melpa" . "melpa.org/packages/")
     ("org"   . "orgmode.org/elpa/")
-    ("gnu"   . "elpa.gnu.org/packages/"))
+    ;("gnu"   . "elpa.gnu.org/packages/")
+    )
   "List of ELPA archives required by Spacemacs.")

 (defvar configuration-layer--package-archives-refreshed nil

On master, you can set dotspacemacs-check-for-update to nil to skip update on startup. Won't help as it skips spacemacs version update check.

[axyz]

I've figured out to start spacemacs correctly setting (defvar configuration-layer--package-archives-refreshed t on that file

[bmag]

I wonder about the error Symbol's function definition is void: projectile-mode. It means that projectile's directory wasn't added to load-path, or projectile-autloads.el wasn't loaded, or projectile.el is malformed or empty. However, projectile is on melpa, not gnu elpa, so I don't understand why there's a problem with projectile.

[brabalan]

@nixmaniack Thank you for the workaround, I was able to load spacemacs doing this

@bmag I think it's a side effect of the failure to access elpa.gnu.org, since I don't see this message when commenting that repository.

[nixmaniack]

@axyz It would skip refreshing other package repos.

[marten]

Does this issue mean you normally can't start Spacemacs when you don't have network connectivity?

[nixmaniack]

@marten Unless there's some package missing, you should be able to start spacemacs normally without network.

Reverting back to commit before pull(develop@{1}) and rolling back packages should be enough in such cases.

[chu-]

+1

[a13ph]

sane temp fix

💬 syl20bnr @ February 19, 2016 4:38 PM

copy back the packages from .cache/.rollback to your ELPA directory

[syl20bnr]

Seems we need more robustness here. I'll check to add an automatic rollback prompt when this happens.

Thank you @a13ph for the link.

[pfitz]

Workaround did the trick so far.

[carloscheddar]

+1

[TheBB]

I think the better workaround for now is to exclude the package that Spacemacs tries to download (which is uuidgen for most people).

[brabalan]

@TheBB In my case I had just asked spacemacs to install another package (ebib). Refreshing the configuration did not download it (probably because elpa.gnu.org was down), so I decided to restart spacemacs.

[syl20bnr]

Argh sorry guys about this, I hope we will be able to fix this mess "quickly".

[CestDiego]

@syl20bnr I get this when trying to update packages:

Opening TLS connection to `elpa.gnu.org'...
Opening TLS connection with `gnutls-cli --insecure -p 443 elpa.gnu.org'...failed
Opening TLS connection with `gnutls-cli --insecure -p 443 elpa.gnu.org --protocols ssl3'...failed
Opening TLS connection with `openssl s_client -connect elpa.gnu.org:443 -no_ssl2 -ign_eof'...failed
Opening TLS connection to `elpa.gnu.org'...failed
url-http: Could not create connection to elpa.gnu.org:443

[carloscheddar]

BTW guys elpa.gnu.org is back up.

EDIT: back down :(

[syl20bnr]

So when I have time to check the issue I cannot reproduce it.
The site is down but the repository seems to work fine :-(

[syl20bnr]

I mean it's cool that it works but it would have been easier to fix the issue if it was still down ;-)

[syl20bnr]

Actually I don't use https, maybe this is why I cannot reproduce it here.

A fresh install (without https) does not block and gives me 10 errors:

(Bootstrap) Installing bind-map...
(Bootstrap) Installing bind-key...
(Bootstrap) Installing which-key...
(Bootstrap) Installing use-package...
(Bootstrap) Installing package-build...
(Bootstrap) Installing quelpa...
Found 193 new package(s) to install...
--> installing package: adaptive-wrap@spacemacs... [5/193]
An error occurred while installing adaptive-wrap (error: (file-error http://elpa.gnu.org/packages/adaptive-wrap-0.5.el Service unavailable))
--> installing package: company-statistics@auto-completion... [29/193]
An error occurred while installing company-statistics (error: (file-error http://elpa.gnu.org/packages/company-statistics-0.2.2.tar Service unavailable))
--> installing package: elm-mode@elm... [39/193]
An error occurred while installing elm-mode (error: (file-error http://elpa.gnu.org/packages/let-alist-1.0.4.el Service unavailable))
--> installing package: flycheck@syntax-checking... [69/193]
An error occurred while installing flycheck (error: (file-error http://elpa.gnu.org/packages/seq-1.11.el Service unavailable))
--> installing package: flycheck-elm@elm... [70/193]
An error occurred while installing flycheck-elm (error: (file-error http://elpa.gnu.org/packages/seq-1.11.el Service unavailable))
--> installing package: flycheck-pos-tip@syntax-checking... [71/193]
An error occurred while installing flycheck-pos-tip (error: (file-error http://elpa.gnu.org/packages/seq-1.11.el Service unavailable))
--> installing package: org-present@org... [142/193]
An error occurred while installing org-present (error: (file-error http://elpa.gnu.org/packages/org-20160215.tar Service unavailable))
--> installing package: orgit@git... [144/193]
An error occurred while installing orgit (error: (file-error http://elpa.gnu.org/packages/org-20160215.tar Service unavailable))
--> installing package: paradox@spacemacs... [147/193]
An error occurred while installing paradox (error: (file-error http://elpa.gnu.org/packages/spinner-1.7.el Service unavailable))
--> installing package: rainbow-mode@colors... [166/193]
An error occurred while installing rainbow-mode (error: (file-error http://elpa.gnu.org/packages/rainbow-mode-0.12.el Service unavailable))
--> installing package: yasnippet@auto-completion... [193/193]

[CestDiego]

Still having problem of not being able to connect to elpa

On Fri, Feb 19, 2016 at 12:54 PM Eric Drechsel notifications@github.com
wrote:

so we can help by DDoSing elpa? [image: ]

—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub
#5139 (comment)
.

Diego Berrocal
http://cestdiego.github.io

[aldanor]

So it's impossible to set up a new installation currently?

[andrewhj]

I wasn't able to. However, elpa appears to be back up now (It worked when I tried just now)

[syl20bnr]

Should be addressed in 0.105.11, hopefully next time it happens Spacemacs should load normally reporting just a few errors about uninstalled packages. Thank you for the feedback.

[brabalan]

Thank you!

[ghost]

Thanks (By the way it also says not available for melpa but --insecure solved my all problems)

[dhruvinsh]

Its happening again, 08:47 (EST) elpa.gnu.org is down

[WhittlesJr]

This bit me today.

It does eventually continue, but it hangs for a long long time.