ELPA/Marmalade reports "cannot open load file" for ~/.emacs.d/elpa/archives/-pkg

Question

I have installed Marmalade and downloaded some interesting packages. But now, when I start Emacs I get this error:

Cannot open load file: c:/Documents and Settings/Carlos/Datos de programa/.emacs.d/elpa/archives/-pkg

If I use --debug-init, I get:

Debugger entered--Lisp error: (file-error "Cannot open load file" "c:/Documents and Settings/Carlos/Datos de programa/.emacs.d/elpa/archives/-pkg")
load("c:/Documents and Settings/Carlos/Datos de programa/.emacs.d/elpa/archives/-pkg" nil t)
(if (file-directory-p pkg-dir) (load (concat pkg-dir ... "-pkg") nil t))
(let ((pkg-dir ...)) (if (file-directory-p pkg-dir) (load ... nil t)))

package-load-descriptor("c:/Documents and Settings/Carlos/Datos de programa/.emacs.d/elpa/" "archives")
(lambda (name) (package-load-descriptor dir name))("archives")
mapc((lambda (name) (package-load-descriptor dir name)) ("anything-1.287" "anything-  complete-1.86" "anything-config-0.4.1" "archive-contents" "archive-contents~" "archives" "auto-indent-mode-0.35" "builtin-packages" "builtin-packages~" "clojure-mode-1.7.1" "clojurescript-mode-0.5" "coffee-mode-0.3.0" "color-file-completion-1.0.1" "color-theme-6.6.1" "color-theme-eclipse-0.0.2" "color-theme-github-0.0.3" "color-theme-railscasts-0.0.2" "color-theme-twilight-0.1" "css-mode-1.0" "drag-stuff-0.0.3" "evernote-mode-0.41" "find-file-in-project-2.0" "flymake-coffee-0.4" "flymake-haml-0.5" "flymake-ruby-0.4" "flymake-shell-0.5" "haml-mode-3.0.14" "highlight-parentheses-1.0.1" "html-script-src-0.0.2" "inf-ruby-2.1" "js-comint-0.0.1" "js2-mode-20090814" "lua-mode-20100617" "package.el" "package.el~" "project-local-variables-0.2" "ruby-compilation-0.7" "ruby-electric-1.1" "ruby-mode-1.1" "slime-20100404" "tabbar-2.0.1" "tabbar-ruler-0.2" "yasnippet-0.6.1" "yasnippet-bundle-0.6.1" "zenburn-1.8"))
(if (file-directory-p dir) (mapc (lambda ... ...) (directory-files dir nil "^[^.]")))
(lambda (dir) (if (file-directory-p dir) (mapc ... ...)))("c:/Documents and Settings/Carlos/Datos de programa/.emacs.d/elpa/")
mapc((lambda (dir) (if (file-directory-p dir) (mapc ... ...))) ("c:/Documents and Settings/Carlos/Datos de programa/.emacs.d/elpa/" "/usr/share/emacs/site-lisp/elpa/"))
package-load-all-descriptors()
package-initialize()
  (progn (package-initialize))
(if (load (expand-file-name "~/.emacs.d/elpa/package.el")) (progn (package-initialize)))
(when (load (expand-file-name "~/.emacs.d/elpa/package.el")) (package-initialize))
eval-buffer(#<buffer  *load*> nil "c:/Documents and Settings/Carlos/Datos de programa/.emacs" nil t)  ; Reading at buffer position 9019
load-with-code-conversion("c:/Documents and Settings/Carlos/Datos de programa/.emacs" "c:/Documents and Settings/Carlos/Datos de programa/.emacs" t t)
load("~/.emacs" t t)
#[nil "\205\264

This file doesn't exist. I've tried searching for this problem with Google but I didn't find anything.

Answer 1

Easy. For whatever reason, the package.el you're now using is the "classic" version from http://tromey.com/elpa/package.el. It's wildly incompatible with recent versions of package.el. How you managed to install Marmalade packages using that version, I don't know; you must have had a different version of package.el when you installed those packages, perhaps because you were using a newer Emacs at the time.

The fix is to use the version bundled with your Emacs (if it's new enough to have one), or to replace your ~/.emacs.d/elpa/package.el with this version instead, as described in the Marmalade instructions.