I'm trying to install Kieran Healy's Emacs Starter Kit (https://github.com/kjhealy/emacs-starter-kit) on linux arch (I have also tried on a Mint installation, running into the same errors), but I'm having quite some trouble.
After deleting my ~/.emacs.d and installing the starter kit, emacs starts installing packages, but runs into a 'Package magit- is not available'-error. Other Melpa-packages are installing fine. An m-x refresh-contents doesn't make a difference, and neither does an m-x install-package magit.
I am able to install magit if I temporarily rename my .d.emacs and run with a fresh .emacs, and if I, after installation of magit, enable the starter kit again, emacs will load the installed magit-package perfectly fine. It does stall again, on several other packages (ipython, typopunct), in exactly the same manner.
If I comment out the 'require of these three packages, installation seems to work, but stalls on a not found 'ob-shell (as in this question: https://emacs.stackexchange.com/questions/21366/should-i-have-removed-shell-t-to-clear-an-ob-shell-initialization-error). This is in addition to several other errors that seem to indicate a not-complete installation as I try to continue use of emacs.
I have not been able to find any documentation relating to this. Appearently, missing packages are not uncommon with old emacs-installations, but as I am using a 25.1.1 install, this does not seem to be the problem.
Any ideas going forward?