Lisp environment with Emacs - slime not loading

Question

I was wondering whether someone could help me spot the problem on installing slime on Emacs. I have Ubuntu 12.04.

I was following this tutorial (I have to use this one):

http://emergent-languages.org/Babel2/linux.html

and I am stuck at point 6. Basically, the messages in Emacs say

Loading cua-base...done

Loading paren...done

Polling "/tmp/slime.3213" .. 1 (Abort with `M-x slime-abort-connection'.)

For information about GNU Emacs and the GNU system, type C-h C-a.

(New file)

Polling "/tmp/slime.3213" .. 2 (Abort with `M-x slime-abort-connection'.)

Failed to connect to Swank: inferior process exited

The tutorial says "do not use the slime that comes with Emacs", and I have followed their precise instructions. I have the donwloaded folders (ccl and slime) in /usr/local/share as they suggest, updating the file ~/.emacs as they do. I have also tried removing and installing emacs again, to no avail.

SLIME isn't part of Emacs, so it cannot "come with it", unless you are using some bundled together version. But more importantly, can you otherwise run your Lisp (CCL) and, if you know how to, can you start SWANK server in it? — user797257
– user797257, Commented Sep 11, 2013 at 13:39
No, I can't. I tried that and didn't work. But please see comment to your answer below. — martina.physics
– martina.physics, Commented Sep 11, 2013 at 14:33

score 1 · Accepted Answer · 2013-09-11 15:13:48Z

1

Here's a bit hackish way to try to diagnose:

Install tcpdump (something like sudo apt-get install tcpdump on Debian-like system).
In Emacs, M-xshell
In the shell buffer type this: sudo tcpdump -i lo -A -q -nn -t
M-xslime.
You will have to see output similar to the below, but probably probably different.

[sudo] password for wvxvw: 
tcpdump: verbose output suppressed, use -v or -vv for full protocol decode
listening on lo, link-type EN10MB (Ethernet), capture size 65535 bytes
IP 127.0.0.1.36590 > 127.0.0.1.59445: tcp 0
E..<%.@[email protected].........
.H..........
IP 127.0.0.1.59445 > 127.0.0.1.36590: tcp 0
.....0.........
.H...H......
IP 127.0.0.1.36590 > 127.0.0.1.59445: tcp 0
72o....V.(.....
.H...H..
IP 127.0.0.1.36590 > 127.0.0.1.59445: tcp 66
72o....V.j.....
.H...H..00003c(:emacs-rex (swank:connection-info) "COMMON-LISP-USER" t 2)

IP 127.0.0.1.59445 > 127.0.0.1.36590: tcp 0
E..4..@[email protected].(.....
.H...H..
IP 127.0.0.1.59445 > 127.0.0.1.36590: tcp 1314
E..V..@[email protected].....
.I...H..00051C(:return (:ok (:pid 8924 :style :spawn :encoding (:coding-systems

Post your output, this way we'll know on what stage of connection it failed to connect. What the above does: it shows all the traffic going on your local loopback interface. So you want to make sure you aren't posting anything confidential :)

to make sure you can create files in your home directory:

Tell us what you see when you do:

$ ls -la ~ | grep ' \.$' | awk '{ print $1 }'

This should be: drwx------. But if it isn't, do:

$ chmod u+rwx ~

If the directory .cache is already there, do the same procedure for it too, i.e. make sure that the owner of the directory can read, write and execute (opening directories requires execute permissions).

edited Sep 11, 2013 at 15:13

answered Sep 11, 2013 at 14:24

user797257

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9 Comments

martina.physics Over a year ago

I get: * ; loading #P"/usr/share/common-lisp/source/slime/swank-loader.lisp" ;; ;; Error while ???ing /usr/share/common-lisp/source/slime/swank-backend.lisp: ;; can't create directory /home/marty/.cache/common-lisp/sbcl-1.0.55.0.debian-linux-x86/ ;; Aborting. ;; *

user797257 Over a year ago

@martina is it possible that your home directory is write-protected? I.e. that when you start Lisp it won't be able to create directories in it?

martina.physics Over a year ago

indeed, if I open that directory, I cannot create any other things within it.

user797257 Over a year ago

@martina well, then just do chmod +ow ~ and try again?

user797257 Over a year ago

actually no, chmod u+rwx first (this gives full permissions only to your user, no need to give them to others, if not required).

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