Building xemacs with './configure --with-xpm=no' causes gnus to fail to load (see backtrace below for an example). This turns out to be a bug in gnus-xmas.el fixed by this patch: --- lisp/gnus/gnus-xmas.el~orig Wed Dec 9 04:26:29 1998 +++ lisp/gnus/gnus-xmas.el Sun Feb 21 19:30:52 1999 ＠＠ -797,7 +797,7 ＠＠ `[xpm :file ,file-xpm]) ((featurep 'xbm) ;; Then a not-so-nifty XBM - [xbm :file ,file-xbm]) + `[xbm :file ,file-xbm]) ;; Then the simple string (t [string :data "Gnus:"]))))) (set-glyph-face glyph 'modeline-buffer-id) Here is an example of the backtrace: Signaling: (wrong-type-argument stringp \,file-xbm) check-valid-instantiator([xbm :file \,file-xbm] image) canonicalize-spec-list([xbm :file \,file-xbm] image) set-specifier(#<image-specifier global=<unspecified> fallback=((nil . ...)) 0x123b> [xbm :file \,file-xbm] nil nil nil) set-glyph-property(#<glyph (buffer) #<image-specifier global=<unspecified> fallback=(...) 0x123b>0x123a> image [xbm :file \,file-xbm] nil nil nil) set-glyph-image(#<glyph (buffer) #<image-specifier global=<unspecified> fallback=(...) 0x123b>0x123a> [xbm :file \,file-xbm]) make-glyph([xbm :file \,file-xbm]) (let* ((file-xpm ...) (file-xbm ...) (glyph ...)) (set-glyph-face glyph (quote modeline-buffer-id)) glyph) ) (progn (setq gnus-xmas-glyph-directory (message-xmas-find-glyph-directory "gnus")) (let* (... ... ...) (set-glyph-face glyph ...) glyph)) ) (defvar gnus-xmas-modeline-glyph (progn (setq gnus-xmas-glyph-directory ...) (let* ... ... glyph))) ) load-internal("/usr/local/src/xemacs/packages/lisp/gnus/gnus-xmas.el" nil nil t nil nil) load("/usr/local/src/xemacs/packages/lisp/gnus/gnus-xmas.el" nil nil t)