Windows 7 installation

[sebastian-schmidt]

Hi i tried to install spacemacs, but it would not download the dependencies.

Contacting host: elpa.gnu.org:80
Entering debugger...

it would not find gpg, which is not on my path.
Used this as a workaround:
http://emacs.stackexchange.com/questions/949/using-elpa-in-batch-mode-on-windows-fails
added (setq package-check-signature nil) to init.el
After a new start it loaded all the packages and after a second start it was ok.

Maybe this should be added to the faq for windows user.
Cheers and thanks for spacemacs

[tuhdo]

I am using this 64 bit build on Windows and it works for me without problem. Are you using the GNU build? If so, probably it's missing GnuTLS library so that it cannot verify with the server because the library is not included by default.

[sebastian-schmidt]

I used this:
http://semantic.supelec.fr/popineau/programming-emacs.html#sec-2

[tuhdo]

That was almost a year ago. Back then it was good but I remember I got problem with installing packages. The version there is the old development 24.4 version, not the released version and the author seems not to maintain it anymore. You should try the 64 bit build I linked. It works for me on both Windows machine

[tuhdo]

Now Emacs is 24.5. already.

[sebastian-schmidt]

Got emacs 24.5 (release) from your link and everything installed fine.

[andyjim47]

Hope it's ok to tag along with this thread, as it's on the general topic. Let me know if I should start another thread instead.
Complete newbie here, hoping you can help me get Spacemacs up and running on Windows 7. I’m not a programmer, not a geek. My interest in Spacemacs relates to writing, journaling, notes, organization. So please assume I know practically nothing if you try to help me.

I have used Vim about a week and like it, and my interest in Spacemacs springs in part from that, in part from frustration with all other software (too long a story to tell here) and hoping Spacemacs will help me. I’ll accept the learning curve to give it a try.

Ok, here’s where I am. I just installed Emacs. Here is the version:
GNU Emacs 25.0.50.1 (x86_64-w64-mingw32) of 2015-04-22 on KAEL
Got it here: http://sourceforge.net/projects/emacsbinw64/?source=typ_redirect

I have downloaded Spacemacs, but slightly confused because there are two files sets, one called ‘spacemacs’, the other called ‘spacemacs-master’, which also includes ‘spacemacs’.

Which one do I use and where do I put it?
And after putting spacemacs in the right place, what next to get up and running in Emacs? Please go step by step. I know nothing.

Sorry for the dumb questions, but I’ve been unable to decipher this from the Spacemacs documentation, as it seems to assume knowledge that I don’t have. I think it assumes at least that I’m an experienced Emacs user. I am not.

andyjim

[tuhdo]

How did you download Spacemacs? Have you installed Git and run this command:

git clone --recursive http://github.com/syl20bnr/spacemacs ~/.emacs.d

Emacs loads everything in there and automatically download necessary plugins. You don't have to do anything unless you want to add more features.

[andyjim47]

That worked this time. Yesterday, with a different Emacs version, it didn't. What a dizzying process, but Spacemacs is up and running now. Thanks much.

Now could you give me one or two more pointers? Maybe from here it's just a matter of reading documentation, but the documentation seems to assume a lot of emacs knowledge. I realize I'll have to have some Emacs knowledge though, so if you'd just point me in a good direction I'll plow ahead.

[tuhdo]

Here is a good tutorial for beginner.

Some conventions to remember:

• C- means Control. For example. C-c means pressing Ctrl-c.
• M- means Alt. For example, M-x means pressing Alt-x.
• <next> means PgDown.
• <prior> means PgUp.

[andyjim47]

Thanks tuhdo, I'm on my way. I see the evil tutor in Spacemacs, and that's great. Personally I think it would be good to have a greeting page on start up similar to Emacs with links to the evil tutor (which I had to learn about elsewhere) and also an interactive Spacemacs tutorial, probably two or three of them from beginner level on up. If these were briefly summarized on the greeting page, the new user could decide what tutes he/she needs.

In my case, with no emacs and almost no Vim experience, I need them all. Yep, I'll dig into the documentation, but tutorials are a nice narrative-like way to get acquainted. It would help me grasp the capabilities that for now are unknowns for me. These (or some of them anyway) should be geared to the complete dummy who knows nothing. Assumption of prior knowledge is very frustrating to the complete beginner. Examples of how such-and-such capability can be used, etc would be great. I'm sure the user could configure to skip the intro page when he/she no longer needs it.

I'll qualify my opinion on this by acknowledging that I'm probably in a very small minority of non-programmers who are interested in Spacemacs for writing and organization, so perhaps it's not worth writing tutes for my class of new users.

I'm looking forward to this adventure. Cheers, andyjim

[syl20bnr]

@andyjim47 I guess you want org. :-)

Once you have spacemacs up and running which seems to be the case, press SPC f e d which opens the file .spacemacs stored in your user directory. There look for the variable dotspacemacs-configuration-layers and uncomment the ;; org line then press C-c C-c to install it. To use org you have to be in a org buffer, opening a file with extension .org automatically set the buffer to major-mode org.

Note that in the next version C-c C-c has been replaced by SPC f e R.

I hope you'll enjoy emacs for notes taking.

[tuhdo]

Thanks tuhdo, I'm on my way. I see the evil tutor in Spacemacs, and that's great. Personally I think it would be good to have a greeting page on start up similar to Emacs with links to the evil tutor (which I had to learn about elsewhere) and also an interactive Spacemacs tutorial, probably two or three of them from beginner level on up. If these were briefly summarized on the greeting page, the new user could decide what tutes he/she needs.

The next release will have this :). When you start, there will be a [?] button that you can click to learn basic navigation on home buffer and link to evil or emacs tutor. The home screen looks nicer to. If you want to try, cd ~/.emacs.d and then git checkout develop. If you done testing and want to use stable master, git checkout master.

[andyjim47]

Thank you, I would like to dig into org (heaven help me!). I don't see the
'dotspacemacs-configuration-layers' variable in the file you led me to. A
search in Explorer does not find a '.spacemacs' file. Here are the
contents of the file that opened with SPC f e d. In Spacemacs I do not see
a filename for this buffer.

---

(custom-set-variables
;; custom-set-variables was added by Custom.
;; If you edit it by hand, you could mess it up, so be careful.
;; Your init file should contain only one such instance.
;; If there is more than one, they won't work right.
'(package-selected-packages
(quote
(zenburn-theme window-numbering volatile-highlights vi-tilde-fringe
smooth-scrolling rfringe rainbow-delimiters powerline popup paradox
page-break-lines neotree multi-term move-text monokai-theme linum-relative
leuven-theme info+ indent-guide ido-vertical-mode hungry-delete hl-anything
highlight-numbers highlight-indentation helm-themes helm-swoop
helm-projectile helm-mode-manager helm-make helm-flyspell helm-descbinds
helm-c-yasnippet helm-ag guide-key-tip google-translate golden-ratio
fringe-helper flx-ido fill-column-indicator fancy-battery expand-region
exec-path-from-shell evil-visualstar evil-tutor
evil-terminal-cursor-changer evil-surround evil-search-highlight-persist
evil-numbers evil-nerd-commenter evil-matchit evil-lisp-state evil-jumper
evil-indent-textobject evil-iedit-state evil-exchange evil-escape evil-args
evil-anzu eval-sexp-fu elisp-slime-nav buffer-move base16-theme
auto-highlight-symbol auto-dictionary aggressive-indent adaptive-wrap
ace-window ace-link ace-jump-mode names anzu iedit smartparens highlight
flx pos-tip guide-key s popwin yasnippet projectile helm async parent-mode
spinner pkg-info epl evil-leader evil use-package bind-key dash)))
'(ring-bell-function (quote ignore)))
(custom-set-faces
;; custom-set-faces was added by Custom.
;; If you edit it by hand, you could mess it up, so be careful.
;; Your init file should contain only one such instance.
;; If there is more than one, they won't work right.
)

---

Thanks,
Andy

On Sat, Apr 25, 2015 at 11:48 PM, Sylvain Benner notifications@github.com
wrote:

@andyjim47 https://github.com/andyjim47 I guess you want org. :-)

Once you have spacemacs up and running which seems to be the case, press SPC
f e d which opens the file .spacemacs stored in your user directory.
There look for the variable dotspacemacs-configuration-layers and
uncomment the ;; org line then press C-c C-c to install it. To use org
you have to be in a org buffer, opening a file with extension .org
automatically set the buffer to major-mode org.

Note that in the next version C-c C-c has been replaced by SPC f e R.

I hope you'll enjoy emacs for notes taking.

—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub
#1362 (comment).

[syl20bnr]

Do you have an old version of spacemacs ?
Be sure to have the last version, delete the .spacemacs file and restart emacs. Spacemacs should ask you what kind of key bindings you are using. Then press SPC f e d and you should have a valid .spacemacs file.

[andyjim47]

That worked, Thnx. I'll be back for more help soon, I'm sure.
Andy

On Sun, Apr 26, 2015 at 9:35 PM, Sylvain Benner notifications@github.com
wrote:

Do you have an old version of spacemacs ?
Be sure to have the last version, delete the .spacemacs file and restart
emacs. Spacemacs should ask you what kind of key bindings you are using.
Then press SPC f e d and you should have a valid .spacemacs file.

—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub
#1362 (comment).

[andyjim47]

Well I'm back for more noob help. When I launched Spacemacs this morning
it found 4 new packages to install, and said 'fetching new package
repository indexes'. But then, one by one, it reported the packages
unavailable. The 4 packages are:

(org) :evil-org
(org) :org-bullets
(org) :org-pomodora
(org) :org-repo-todo

My pace will be slow in learning. I'll take it in small bites. I do think
org-mode is what I need. Thnx for help.
Andy

On Mon, Apr 27, 2015 at 2:30 PM, Andrew McDowell andyjim47@gmail.com
wrote:

That worked, Thnx. I'll be back for more help soon, I'm sure.
Andy

On Sun, Apr 26, 2015 at 9:35 PM, Sylvain Benner notifications@github.com
wrote:

Do you have an old version of spacemacs ?
Be sure to have the last version, delete the .spacemacs file and restart
emacs. Spacemacs should ask you what kind of key bindings you are using.
Then press SPC f e d and you should have a valid .spacemacs file.

—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub
#1362 (comment)
.

[idbrii]

@andyjim47: What version of spacemacs do you have now (it displays at the top of the startup buffer or SPC b h?

Did you do both of the update steps?

[andyjim47]

Thanks for your reply David.
I have version 0.101.2
I just tried to update. I clicked the Update button on the opening page.
It said Updating Spacemacs, etc, then:
--> fetching new package repository indexes

And there it hung...

Message at bottom:
Invalid version string: 'nil'

Since that step didn't seem to work I didn't try step 2. I'm in Win7.

-Andy

On Sun, May 10, 2015 at 10:48 AM, David Briscoe notifications@github.com
wrote:

@andyjim47 https://github.com/andyjim47: What version of spacemacs do
you have now (it displays at the top of the startup buffer or SPC b h?

Did you do both of the update steps
https://github.com/syl20bnr/spacemacs#update?

—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub
#1362 (comment)
.

[idbrii]

I'm still new, so I'm stumped.

You could rename your .emacs.d and your .spacemacs and try re-cloning as tuhdo instructed above. Then bring your .spacemacs settings back over. It's possible that there's something in there that's breaking something.

[StreakyCobra]

There is people using Spacemacs on Windows 7, and there don't seem to be too much problems with its installation, as confirms the 6 months without news on this issue. I'm closing it, but feel free to open a new one in case of trouble ☺️