package-refresh-contents successfully checks against elpa.gnu.org and orgmode.org repos. When it comes to melpa, it just hangs at contacting host. It works in 24.3. It used to work with nightly snapshots. Not sure exactly when it stopped working, but it also failed on 24.3.91. (require 'package) (add-to-list 'package-archives '("org" . "http://orgmode.org/elpa/") t) (add-to-list 'package-archives '("melpa" . "http://melpa.milkbox.net/packages/") t) (package-initialize) (setq url-http-attempt-keepalives nil) It fails with our without the keepalives nil setting. In GNU Emacs 24.3.92.1 (x86_64-apple-darwin13.2.0, NS apple-appkit-1265.20) of 2014-06-27 on builder10-9.porkrind.org Configured using: `configure --with-ns' Important settings: value of $LC_CTYPE: en_US.UTF-8 value of $LANG: en_US.UTF-8 locale-coding-system: utf-8-unix Major mode: Lisp Interaction Minor modes in effect: ido-hacks-mode: t ido-vertical-mode: t global-undo-tree-mode: t undo-tree-mode: t global-rainbow-delimiters-mode: t rainbow-delimiters-mode: t yas-global-mode: t yas-minor-mode: t shell-dirtrack-mode: t show-paren-mode: t ido-everywhere: t tooltip-mode: t electric-indent-mode: t mouse-wheel-mode: t file-name-shadow-mode: t global-font-lock-mode: t font-lock-mode: t auto-composition-mode: t auto-encryption-mode: t auto-compression-mode: t column-number-mode: t line-number-mode: t transient-mark-mode: t Recent input: ESC [ > 0 ; 9 5 ; c ESC x r e p o r t RET Recent messages: Loading /Users/terjesb/.emacs.d/terjesb/registers.el (source)...done Loading /Users/terjesb/.emacs.d/terjesb/terjesb.el (source)...done [yas] Loading for `lisp-interaction-mode', just-in-time: (lambda nil (yas--load-directory-1 (quote /Users/terjesb/.emacs.d/elpa/yasnippet-20140617.1640/snippets/lisp-interaction-mode) (quote lisp-interaction-mode)))! [yas] Loading compiled snippets from /Users/terjesb/.emacs.d/elpa/yasnippet-20140617.1640/snippets/lisp-interaction-mode [yas] Loading for `emacs-lisp-mode', just-in-time: (lambda nil (yas--load-directory-1 (quote /Users/terjesb/.emacs.d/elpa/yasnippet-20140617.1640/snippets/emacs-lisp-mode) (quote emacs-lisp-mode)))! [yas] Loading compiled snippets from /Users/terjesb/.emacs.d/elpa/yasnippet-20140617.1640/snippets/emacs-lisp-mode [yas] Loading for `prog-mode', just-in-time: (lambda nil (yas--load-directory-1 (quote /Users/terjesb/.emacs.d/elpa/yasnippet-20140617.1640/snippets/prog-mode) (quote prog-mode)))! [yas] Loading compiled snippets from /Users/terjesb/.emacs.d/elpa/yasnippet-20140617.1640/snippets/prog-mode Loading /Users/terjesb/.emacs.d/elpa/yasnippet-20140617.1640/snippets/prog-mode/.yas-setup...done For information about GNU Emacs and the GNU system, type C-h C-a. 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