**Steps to replicate the issue** (include links if applicable):
* SSH into the non-dev Toolforge bastion, `login.toolforge.org`
* open Emacs, e.g. `emacs` or `emacs whatever`
**What happens?**:
Emacs displays an error:
> Symbol’s value as variable is void: ispell-menu-map-needed
And shows the scratch buffer. (You can manually visit the file you wanted to open with C-x C-f.)
**What should have happened instead?**:
Emacs should open the file for editing.
**Software version** (skip for WMF-hosted wikis like Wikipedia):
```lang=shell-session
lucaswerkmeister@tools-sgebastion-10:~$ emacs --version
GNU Emacs 27.1
Copyright (C) 2020 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
GNU Emacs comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.
You may redistribute copies of GNU Emacs
under the terms of the GNU General Public License.
For more information about these matters, see the file named COPYING.
lucaswerkmeister@tools-sgebastion-10:~$ namei $(which emacs)
f: /usr/bin/emacs
d /
d usr
d bin
l emacs -> /etc/alternatives/emacs
d /
d etc
d alternatives
l emacs -> /usr/bin/emacs-gtk
d /
d usr
d bin
- emacs-gtk
```
**Other information** (browser name/version, screenshots, etc.):
Strangely enough, `login-dev.toolforge.org`, i.e. tools-sgebastion-11, has a different, working Emacs.
```lang=shell-session
lucaswerkmeister@tools-sgebastion-11:~$ emacs --version
GNU Emacs 26.1
Copyright (C) 2018 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
GNU Emacs comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.
You may redistribute copies of GNU Emacs
under the terms of the GNU General Public License.
For more information about these matters, see the file named COPYING.
lucaswerkmeister@tools-sgebastion-11:~$ namei $(which emacs)
f: /usr/bin/emacs
d /
d usr
d bin
l emacs -> /etc/alternatives/emacs
d /
d etc
d alternatives
l emacs -> /usr/bin/emacs-nox
d /
d usr
d bin
- emacs-nox
```