21.2.31¹ moans thusly, when started via a user who has no .emacs at all. (1) (initialization/error) An error has occurred while loading nil: Wrong type argument: stringp, nil To ensure normal operation, you should investigate the cause of the error in your initialization file and remove it. Use the `-debug-init' option to XEmacs to view a complete error backtrace. There is no initialization file to investigate. Specifically, I was installing INN and was about to edit configuration files. User "news" has no .emacs. With -debug-init, xemacs gives: Signaling: (wrong-type-argument stringp nil) substitute-in-file-name(nil) load(nil t t t) load-user-init-file() load-init-file() command-line() normal-top-level() "touch .emacs" makes this whine go away. --karl ¹ Yes, I know I'm a bit behind.