bug#21138: 24.5; package system not initializing

[Alexis]

Artur Malabarba <bruce.connor.am@gmail.com> writes:

> > Do I need to call package-initialize in 24.5? The documentation 
> > implies I do not.
>
> You do not.
>
> > On a fresh install of 24.5, I am not seeing the package system 
> > initialize.
>
> What makes you think that?  What values do you get for 
> `package--initialized` and for `package-enable-at-startup` after 
> Emacs has finished starting up?

i'm on 24.5.2 (manually compiled on Debian Jessie x86_64), and 
when i comment out `package-initialize' from my init.el and start 
a non-daemonised instance of Emacs, startup doesn't fully complete 
due to `package-archives' being a void variable on which my config 
tries to use `add-to-list'. Then, commenting out such lines, i get 
errors on calls to things like `emms-all' - i have 
emms-20150519.736 installed from MELPA. After startup completes, 
`package--initialized' and `package-enable-at-startup' are both 
set to `t'.


Alexis.