Honestly, I don't know why it's looking for swank-loader.lisp in that location.
When I check the ...quicklisp/dists/quicklisp/software directory, I see that slime is no longer present. Attempting to run (ql:update-all-dists) again doesn't get it.
here is my .emacs. This might help explain how SLIME and the system is configured.
----- .emacs -----
(custom-set-variables
;; custom-set-variables was added by Custom.
;; If you edit it by hand, you could mess it up, so be careful.
;; Your init file should contain only one such instance.
;; If there is more than one, they won't work right.
'(column-number-mode t)
'(global-linum-mode t)
'(inhibit-startup-screen t)
'(save-place t nil (saveplace))
'(scroll-bar-mode (quote left))
'(show-paren-mode t)
'(size-indication-mode t)
'(tabbar-auto-scroll-flag t)
'(tabbar-cycle-scope nil)
'(tabbar-mode t nil (tabbar))
'(tool-bar-mode nil)
'(uniquify-buffer-name-style (quote forward) nil (uniquify))
'(word-wrap t)
'(x-select-enable-clipboard t))
(custom-set-faces
;; custom-set-faces was added by Custom.
;; If you edit it by hand, you could mess it up, so be careful.
;; Your init file should contain only one such instance.
;; If there is more than one, they won't work right.
'(default ((t (:inherit nil :stipple nil :background "gray12" :foreground "green" :inverse-video nil :box nil :strike-through nil :overline nil :underline nil :slant normal :weight normal :height 125 :width normal :foundry "unknown" :family "DejaVu Sans Mono")))))
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
;; Sets Emacs' frame window position and size
(setq default-frame-alist
'((top . 00) (left . 00)
(width . 95) (height . 45)))
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
;; Set access to Emacs Lisp Package Archive (ELPA): See the following URL for
;; info on using ELPA
;;
http://batsov.com/articles/2012/02/19/;; package-management-in-emacs-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly/
(add-to-list 'load-path "~/.emacs.d/elpa/")
(require 'package)
(package-initialize)
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
;; Color theme stuff
;; see the following for available GNU themes built into emacs
;; "
http://gnuemacscolorthemetest.googlecode.com/svn/html/index-el.html"
;; see the following for RGB color codes and names available for emacs
;; "
http://homepage1.nifty.com/blankspace/emacs/emacs_rgb.html"
;; use M-x color-theme-<color-theme-name> to inspect other themes from
;; minibuffer
;; set access to lots of color schemes for Emacs 23.3 and later
(add-to-list 'load-path "~/.emacs.d/color-theme-6.6.0")
;(add-to-list 'load-path "~/.emacs.d/solarized/emacs-colors-solarized")
(require 'color-theme)
(color-theme-initialize)
(color-theme-calm-forest)
;; (require 'color-theme-solarized)
;; (color-theme-solarized-dark)
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
;; Column Marker stuff
;; Highlight column 80 with white block (most printers print 80 character-wide
;; pages).
;; Manually invoke this in an Emacs buffer with either:
;; C-u 80 M-x column-marker-1
;; M-: (column-marker-1 80)
(add-to-list 'load-path "~/.emacs.d") ;`column-marker.el' in this directory
(require 'column-marker)
;; (column-marker-1 80)
;; The following `add-hook...' commands automatically invoke `column-marker-1
;; for four different minor modes in Emacs. Emacs detects these modes with
;; the extension used for a file name.
;; Highlight column 80 in perl mode.
(add-hook 'perl-mode-hook (lambda () (interactive) (column-marker-1 80)))
;; Highlight column 80 in lisp mode.
(add-hook 'lisp-mode-hook (lambda () (interactive) (column-marker-1 80)))
;; Highlight column 80 in emacs-lisp mode.
(add-hook 'emacs-lisp-mode-hook (lambda () (interactive) (column-marker-1 80)))
;; Highlight column 80 in text mode.
;; (add-hook 'text-mode-hook (lambda () (interactive) (column-marker-1 80)))
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
;; Set the highlight-current-line minor mode
;; In every buffer, the line which contains the cursor will be fully highlighted
(global-hl-line-mode 1)
;; To customize the background color of highlighted line
(set-face-background 'hl-line "#330")
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
;; Line by line scrolling
;; This makes the buffer scroll by only a single line when the up or
;; down cursor keys push the cursor (tool-bar-mode) outside the
;; buffer. The standard emacs behaviour is to reposition the cursor in
;; the center of the screen; this makes scrolling jumpy.
(setq scroll-step 1
scroll-conservatively 10000)
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
;; See following URL for details on how to make the following work in a buffer:
;;
http://ergoemacs.org/emacs/whitespace-mode.html;; invoke the following command in minibuffer to remove all trailing-whitespace
;; (that is, space characters between the end of a line and linefeed character)
;; M-x delete-trailing-whitespace
;;
;; invoke this command in minibuffer to make all whitespace characters visible
;; for current session
;; M-x global-whitespace-mode
;;
;; invoke this command in minibuffer to make newline characters visible for
;; current session
;; M-x global-whitespace-newline-mode
;;
;; make whitespace-mode use just basic coloring
(setq whitespace-style '(spaces tabs newline space-mark tab-mark newline-mark))
(setq whitespace-display-mappings
;; all numbers are Unicode codepoint in decimal. e.g. (insert-char 182 1)
'((space-mark 32 [183] [46]) ; 32 SPACE 「 」, 183 MIDDLE DOT 「·」,
; 46 FULL STOP 「.」
(newline-mark 10 [8629 10]) ; 8629 DOWNWARDS ARROW WITH CORNER
;LEFTWARDS, 10 LINE FEED
(tab-mark 9 [9655 9] [92 9]))) ; 9 TAB, 9655 WHITE RIGHT-POINTING
; TRIANGLE 「▷」
;; invoke the mode to automatically display newline character at the end of
;; every line (global-whitespace-newline-mode)
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
;; Enable ability to modify the .emacs file and then load those changes into
;; another buffer or window. See the following URL for more detail:
;;
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2281593/;; how-can-i-load-changes-to-my-emacs-without-rebooting-emacs
(defun reload-dotemacs()
"Reload .emacs file into current session"
(interactive)
(load-file "~/.emacs"))
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
;; SLIME and LISP stuff
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
;; ;;
;; According to the following sources ;;
;;
http://www.ubuntuupdates.org/package/core/oneiric/universe/base/slime ;;
;;
http://hours-keyboard.blogspot.com/2012/01/slime-there-is-no-package-with-name.html
;; ;;
;; The following should be added to Emacs setup files for ;;
;; CLISP [~/.clisprc.lisp] and SBCL [~/.sbclrc] ;;
;; These files force invokation of ASDF in a particular way for ;;
;; each environment. ;;
;; ;;
;; Setup ASDF for CLISP. Add this line to ~/.clisprc.lisp ;;
;; ;;
;; (load #P"/usr/share/common-lisp/source/cl-asdf/asdf.lisp") ;;
;; ;;
;; Setup ASDF for SBCL. Add this line to ~/.sbclrc ;;
;; ;;
;; (require 'asdf) ;;
;; ;;
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
(set-language-environment "utf-8")
;; Note that if you save a heap image, the character encoding specified on the
;; command line will be preserved, and you won't have to specify -K utf-8 again
;; Lines suffixed with `!!!' below, are based on lines from
;; "/etc/emacs/site-start.d/50slime.el"
;; Lines suffixed with `$$$' are still necessary even though Quicklisp seems
;; to deal with SLIME and maintain and updated SLIME.
;; The following reflects current SLIME directory
(add-to-list 'load-path "~/devtools/slime-current/") ; `!!!' `$$$'
;; The following was previous statement for the above. It reflects default
;; Ubuntu placement of SLIME (Ubuntu's version of SLIME is usually obsolete)
;; (add-to-list 'load-path "/usr/share/common-lisp/source/slime/")
;; The following reflects current SLIME directory
(add-to-list 'load-path "~/devtools/slime-current/contrib") ; `!!!' `$$$'
;; The following was initial statement for the above. It reflects default
;; Ubuntu placement of SLIME (Ubuntu's version of SLIME usually obsolete)
;; (add-to-list 'load-path "/usr/share/common-lisp/source/slime/contrib")
(require 'slime-autoloads)
(setq slime-net-coding-system 'utf-8-unix)
;(setq slime-backend "~/devtools/slime-current/swank-loader.lisp") ; `!!!' `$$$'
;; The following was initial statement for the above. It reflects default
;; Ubuntu placement of SLIME (Ubuntu's version of SLIME usually obsolete)
;; (setq slime-backend "/usr/share/common-lisp/source/slime/swank-loader.lisp")
;; The following adapted from /etc/emacs/site-start.d/50slime.el
(let ((slime-autoloads "~/devtools/slime-current/slime-autoloads.elc")) ; `!!!' `$$$'
(if (file-exists-p slime-autoloads) `$$$'
(load slime-autoloads) `$$$'
(load "~/devtools/slime-current/slime-autoloads.el"))) `$$$'
(eval-after-load "slime"
'(progn
(slime-setup '(slime-fancy slime-asdf slime-banner))
(setq slime-complete-symbol*-fancy t)
(setq slime-complete-symbol-function 'slime-fuzzy-complete-symbol)))
;; auto-generated & inserted by `(ql:quickload "quicklisp-slime-helper")
(load (expand-file-name "~/quicklisp/slime-helper.el"))
;; The following sets the default LISP to be run from `M-x run-lisp' from
;; minibuffer in Emacs. This only runs lisp inside Emacs. It doesn't
;; invoke SLIME under Emacs.
;(setq inferior-lisp-program "~/devtools/acl90express/alisp")
;(setq inferior-lisp-program "~/devtools/ccl/lx86cl")
;(setq inferior-lisp-program "/usr/bin/clisp -I -ansi")
;(setq inferior-lisp-program "/usr/bin/gcl")
(setq inferior-lisp-program "/usr/local/bin/sbcl") ; --core /usr/local/lib/sbcl/sbcl.core")
;; Above is where SBCL was put when I upgraded manually.
;; Currently using SBCL 1.1.5.
;(setq inferior-lisp-program "/usr/bin/sbcl") ; SBCL's default Ubuntu location,
; currently using SBCL 1.0.5
;; The following allows one to decide which lisp to load using
;; M-- M-x slime <-- entered at the minibuffer in Emacs
;;
;; It also provides a selection list for use when invoking `M-x slime' in the
;; minibuffer. The first item in the list of implementations will be selected
;; and run from `M-x slime'. Reorder the list to change the behavior of
;; `M-x slime'.
(setq slime-lisp-implementations
'((sbcl ("/usr/local/bin/sbcl")) ; "--core" "/usr/local/lib/sbcl/sbcl.core")
; :coding-system utf-8-unix) ;this is where SBCL was put when I
; upgraded manually, currently using
; SBCL 1.1.5
(clisp ("/usr/bin/clisp" "-I" "-ansi"))
(ccl ("~/devtools/ccl/lx86cl"))
(acl9 ("~/devtools/acl90express/alisp"))))
;; (sbcl ("/usr/bin/sbcl" "--core" "/usr/lib/sbcl/sbcl.core")
;; :coding-system utf-8-unix) ;SBCL's default Ubuntu location
;;
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
;; these lines allow Gambit-C Scheme to be run in inferior mode un Emacs.
;; You can then start an inferior Gambit process by typing ALT-x run-scheme
; (autoload 'gambit-inferior-mode "gambit" "Hook Gambit mode into cmuscheme.")
; (autoload 'gambit-mode "gambit" "Hook Gambit mode into scheme.")
; (add-hook 'inferior-scheme-mode-hook (function gambit-inferior-mode))
; (add-hook 'scheme-mode-hook (function gambit-mode))
; (setq scheme-program-name "gsi -:d-")
; (require 'gambit)
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
;; end of .emacs
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
----------------------