I have installed it to ~/.emacs.d/dashboard per instructions, and my .emacs file looks like <code> (add-to-list 'load-path (concat user-emacs-directory "/dashboard/")) (require 'dashboard) (dashboard/setup-startup-hook) </code> I do see an error with starting in --debug-init , but it only shows up in the mini buffer, not the *Messages* for some reason: Symbols definition is void : projectile-mode