Xingyu Pu <pu.stshine@gmail.com> writes:

> When installing helm from the NonGNU ELPA, packages that helm requires
> is not installed.
>
> Step to reproduce:
>
> Add nongnu repository to package-archives.
> List packages by M-x list-packages.
> Select helm from nongnu and install.
> Package helm-core, async, popup that helm requires is not installed.

It seems to me that the core of the issue is that the ELPA build system
overrides the existing -pkg.el files, by trying to infer all the package
metadata from the main files (helm.el, helm-core.el).  If as in the case
of helm and helm-core these are empty, this leads to unexpected results.

This patch seems to fix the issue on my end: