First I tried using Options Customize List Packages to install updated packages over my package directory which predates Steven's xemacs-SUMO-1998-09-19.tar.gz. I was left with a hierarchy of /export/home/tmp/packages-21.0: total 726 drwxr-xr-x 7 aichner stdsoft 512 Sep 25 11:25 . drwxr-xr-x 20 aichner stdsoft 2048 Sep 20 10:40 .. drwxr-xr-x 28 aichner stdsoft 1024 Sep 25 11:28 etc drwxr-xr-x 3 aichner stdsoft 3072 Sep 25 11:29 info drwxr-xr-x 77 aichner stdsoft 1536 Sep 25 12:32 lisp drwxr-xr-x 6 aichner stdsoft 512 Sep 25 11:29 man drwxr-xr-x 7 aichner stdsoft 512 Sep 25 12:30 pkginfo /export/home/tmp/packages-21.0/pkginfo: total 66 drwxr-xr-x 7 aichner stdsoft 512 Sep 25 12:30 . drwxr-xr-x 7 aichner stdsoft 512 Sep 25 14:02 .. -rw-r--r-- 1 aichner stdsoft 1234 Sep 20 04:24 MANIFEST.calendar -rw-r--r-- 1 aichner stdsoft 993 Sep 20 01:56 MANIFEST.dired -rw-r--r-- 1 aichner stdsoft 3621 Sep 20 05:45 MANIFEST.edit-utils -rw-r--r-- 1 aichner stdsoft 1840 Sep 20 02:00 MANIFEST.efs -rw-r--r-- 1 aichner stdsoft 793 Sep 20 02:02 MANIFEST.mail-lib -rw-r--r-- 1 aichner stdsoft 637 Sep 20 05:48 MANIFEST.pcl-cvs -rw-r--r-- 1 aichner stdsoft 3352 Sep 20 07:08 MANIFEST.psgml -rw-r--r-- 1 aichner stdsoft 3571 Sep 20 05:38 MANIFEST.vm -rw-r--r-- 1 aichner stdsoft 2314 Sep 20 01:45 MANIFEST.xemacs-base drwxr-xr-x 22 aichner stdsoft 1024 Sep 25 13:22 etc drwxr-xr-x 2 aichner stdsoft 3072 Sep 25 13:57 info drwxr-xr-x 63 aichner stdsoft 1536 Sep 25 13:57 lisp drwxr-xr-x 24 aichner stdsoft 512 Sep 25 12:49 man drwxr-xr-x 2 aichner stdsoft 2048 Sep 25 13:58 pkginfo /export/home/tmp/packages-21.0/pkginfo/pkginfo: total 196 drwxr-xr-x 2 aichner stdsoft 2048 Sep 25 13:58 . drwxr-xr-x 7 aichner stdsoft 512 Sep 25 12:30 .. -rw-r--r-- 1 aichner stdsoft 931 Sep 20 00:55 MANIFEST.Sun <lines deleted by Adrian> -rw-r--r-- 1 aichner stdsoft 2810 Sep 20 05:53 MANIFEST.zenirc So I suspected the introduction of MANIFESTs makes the new installation interface incompatible with my old packages-21.0 directory structure. I replace the contents of packages-21.0 with Steven's ftp://ftp.xemacs.org/pub/xemacs/packages/xemacs-SUMO-1998-09-19.tar.gz and installed ftp://ftp.xemacs.org/pub/xemacs/packages/package-get-base.el-1998-09-19 as lisp/package-get-base.el in my XEmacs installation, which is emacs-version "21.0 \"Norwegian\" XEmacs Lucid" on system-configuration "sparc-sun-solaris2.5.1". Again, I got packages installed into the pkginfo directory with manifests stored in pkginfo/pkginfo. /export/home/tmp/packages-21.0: total 39770 drwxr-xr-x 7 aichner stdsoft 512 Sep 20 11:02 . drwxr-xr-x 20 aichner stdsoft 2048 Sep 25 14:30 .. drwxr-xr-x 29 aichner stdsoft 1024 Sep 20 07:08 etc -rw-r--r-- 1 aichner stdsoft 217369 Sep 20 11:02 gunzip-c-tar-xvf.err drwxr-xr-x 2 aichner stdsoft 3072 Sep 20 07:08 info drwxr-xr-x 80 aichner stdsoft 1536 Sep 20 07:08 lisp drwxr-xr-x 32 aichner stdsoft 512 Sep 20 07:08 man drwxr-xr-x 2 aichner stdsoft 2560 Sep 20 07:08 pkginfo -rw-r--r-- 1 aichner stdsoft 20094175 Sep 20 07:13 xemacs-SUMO-1998-09-19.tar.gz /export/home/tmp/packages-21.0/pkginfo: total 280 drwxr-xr-x 7 aichner stdsoft 2560 Sep 25 14:34 . drwxr-xr-x 7 aichner stdsoft 512 Sep 20 11:02 .. -rw-r--r-- 1 aichner stdsoft 931 Sep 20 00:55 MANIFEST.Sun <lines deleted by Adrian> -rw-r--r-- 1 aichner stdsoft 2810 Sep 20 05:53 MANIFEST.zenirc drwxr-xr-x 4 aichner stdsoft 512 Sep 25 14:34 etc drwxr-xr-x 2 aichner stdsoft 512 Sep 25 14:34 info drwxr-xr-x 3 aichner stdsoft 512 Sep 25 14:34 lisp drwxr-xr-x 3 aichner stdsoft 512 Sep 25 14:34 man drwxr-xr-x 2 aichner stdsoft 512 Sep 25 14:34 pkginfo Any clues what's going on here? Thanks, Adrian -- Adrian Aichner Applications Engineer Teradyne GmbH Semiconductor Test Group Telephone +49/89/41861(0)-208 Dingolfinger Strasse 2 Fax +49/89/41861-217 D-81673 MUENCHEN E-mail aichner(a)ecf.teradyne.com