I installed it in my computer on a separate directory. It chokes while reading my .emacs file; on start up, it reads .emacs, .gnu-emacs and .gnu-emacs-custom if present. The first two files appear geared to be configured for a default emacs installation. Since those two files are meant for emacs 20.x, you'll get error messages. My .emacs and .gnu-emacs are unmodified versions from /etc/skel, that is, the files you get when you create a user account. One could try removing those three files and create brand new ones from scratch. If you start it with the -q option, it will not read those files. Curiously, if I try to run it as root or any other regular user, I get the following error message and the program quits: $ ~raffo/contrib/emacs/bin/emacs No fonts match `-*-fixed-medium-r-*--6-*-*-*-*-*-iso8859-1' $ That font is not available in my X server. This problem is solved by editing /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults/Emacs and fixing that font at the bottom of the file, size 7 is available. Besides that, it seems OK. I'll be testing it in the following days. Rafael