From emacs -q, execute: (add-to-list 'load-path "~/.emacs.d/elisp-build/Pymacs/") (setq ropemacs-global-prefix "C-x C-9") (require 'pymacs) (pymacs-load "ropemacs" "rope-") On Emacs 24.1, latest Pymacs, rope, ropemacs, ropemode, this will give the error Python: ValueError: chr() arg not in range(256).