bug#40923: M-x list-packages -> blah elpa.gnu.org blah: "incomprehensible buffer"

[Noam Postavsky]

Eduardo Ochs <eduardoochs@gmail.com> writes:

> If I run `M-x list-packages' - or if I type C-e C-x C-e in the first
> line - it does not list anything from ELPA and gives this error:
>
>   error in process sentinel: Error retrieving:
>   https://elpa.gnu.org/packages/archive-contents "incomprehensible
>   buffer"

Oh, sorry, I somehow didn't realize you meant the "incomprehensible
buffer" part literally until now.  Try doing

    (setq debug-on-signal t debug-on-error t)

before calling list-packages to stop at the error in the debugger (it's
possible you could hit some different errors first, in which case press
'c' to continue until you get the "incomprehensible buffer" one again).
Then check the contents of the buffer.  You can get the buffer name to
look at, with

    e (current-buffer) RET

in the debugger.  The name will probably be " *temp*" (note the leading
space) possibly with a random number as suffix.  Then look at the
contents, hopefully that will give a clue as to what happened.