One even gets http://debian.linux.org.tw/debian/pool/main/g/gnus/gnus_5.10.2.orig.tar.gz and follows the instructions $ make cd lisp && make EMACS="emacs" lispdir="/usr/share/emacs/site-lisp" all make[1]: Entering directory `/home/jidanni/tmp/gnus-5.10.2/lisp' rm -f *.elc gnus-load.el URLDIR=/usr/share/emacs/21.2/site-lisp/url/ W3DIR=/usr/share/emacs21/site-lisp/w3-el/ lispdir=/usr/share/emacs/site-lisp srcdir=. emacs -batch -q -no-site-file -l ./dgnushack.el -f dgnushack-make-cus-load . Loading cus-dep... Directory . Generating cus-load.el... Wrong type argument: stringp, (mm-inline-text-html-with-images custom-variable) make[1]: *** [gnus-load.el] Error 255 make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/jidanni/tmp/gnus-5.10.2/lisp' make: *** [lick] Error 2