Comment 3 for bug 1189700

Quoting the attached VarLogDistupgradeTermlog.gz:
> Install emacsen-common for xemacs21
> emacsen-common: Handling install of emacsen flavor xemacs21
>
> WARNING:
> Couldn't find obvious defaults for:
> data-directory
> mule-lisp-directory
> lisp-directory
> Perhaps some directories don't exist, or the XEmacs executable,
> /usr/bin/xemacs21
> is in a strange place?Loading /usr/share/emacs/site-lisp/debian-startup...
> Loading 00debian...
> Error while loading 00debian: Symbol's function definition is void: loop
> Loading 00debian-vars...
> Loading 50anthy-el...
> Loading 50autoconf...
> Error while loading 50autoconf: No /usr/local/ prefixed paths in load-path
> Loading 50dictionaries-common...
> Error while loading 50dictionaries-common: No /usr/local/ prefixed paths in load-path
> Loading 50yorick-auto...
> Loading 60agda-stdlib...
> Symbol's function definition is void: dolist
> xemacs exiting

This looks like a problem with xemacs21. As a workaround, would it be acceptable to switch to GNU Emacs instead? Regrettably, the xemacs21 package is old and poorly maintained.