Wrong type argument: symbolp after PR #597 / dashboard-20260327

[Alf-tuta]

Emacs version: 30.2
Dashboard package: dashboard-20260327 (builded from MELPA) — note: I reverted to dashboard-20260321 which works.
Symptom: Dashboard loads but section navigation keys (r / m / a for recents/bookmarks/agenda) do not work when using the 20260327 build; reported error was "Wrong type argument: symbolp" referencing a bytecode vector instead of a symbol. I cannot reproduce now because I rolled back to the previous version, so I don't have a current backtrace.
Suspected cause: PR #597 appears to replace section handlers (symbols) with anonymous functions/closures (bytecode vectors). Code elsewhere expects symbols (e.g., uses symbolp/eq), so closures trigger symbolp errors and break navigation.
Reference: https://github.com/emacs-dashboard/dashboard/pull/597/files#diff-ecbc1aa90e9ff97a00b0b2aab1551bceee0c4d21993146bdcb1af4de31c9cac6
Steps to reproduce (when the 20260327 build is installed):
Install dashboard from MELPA around 2026-03-27.
Start Emacs and open the dashboard.
Press r / m / a to jump to sections — navigation fails and a symbolp error is raised.
Request: please review PR #597 so handlers remain compatible with code that expects symbols (or update those checks). If helpful I can re-install the 20260327 build and provide a backtrace / more info.

[jcs090218]

cc @ricardoricho

[ricardoricho]

Hi @Alf-tuta, thanks for reporting this issue.
Unfortunately I don't use MELPA, so I can't experience the update process.
The current version in MELPA is 20260327.1547 I tested it in a container, and it works. I'm thinking maybe it was something with the update process and some cached definitions. Did you restart Emacs?
Yes, it would be very helpful if you could reinstall the new version and tell us more about the error. You could use debug-on-error and share the content of the *Backtrace* buffer.

[Alf-tuta]

Hi,
yes this is the new version with issues 20260327.1547
dashboard appears but when i push r to go to recent docs doesn't do anything. The same if i tick to m to go to bookmarks.
the error is
apply: Wrong type argument: symbolp, #[0 "��!���1�� 0����=?����!�" [recents widget-forward 1 (error) dashboard--current-section nil dashboard--goto-section] 2 (“…./.emacs.d/elpa/dashboard-20260327.1547/dashboard.elc" . 8831) nil]

No problems with dashboard-20260321.2128 which works perfectly.

[ricardoricho]

I'm sorry, but I don't know what's wrong. At some point Emacs is treating a lambda as a symbol.
In the dashboard buffer with C-h m, you could see the keymap, and all the shortcuts (r, m, a, R, M, A) should be bound to an anonymous function. Those functions are for cycling through the section. You can see the compiled code and maybe share it here, just to see if there is any difference.

Also, again in the dashboard buffer, if you copy the compile function, that is all the thing in the error message after "symbolp,": #[0 '...[recents widget-forward...nil]. With M-: and evaluating the expression:

(call-interactive #[0 '...[recents widget....nil])

The cursor should jump to the recents section. Am I missing something? Any "special" configuration?

[magthe]

I'm seeing this problem as well. My first instinct was to turn off the new default cycling behaviour, but I'm not sure how to do that. The config var, dashboard-navigation-cycle, still defaults to nil:

(defcustom dashboard-navigation-cycle nil
  "Non-nil cycle the section navigation."
  :type 'boolean
  :group 'dashboard)

So how do I turn it off?

I'm guessing this change also broke evil-collection, and I'm not sure how to fix it if there aren't named functions to bind to.

[Alf-tuta]

I was checking that and when evil-mode is on then m,r,p doesn't work. It works when evil is dissabled. Without evil-mode installed, no error and it works, so I think for evil users, it doesn't work or will need other setup, I dont know.
I use evil-mode and I'll need to use the dashboard old version and pin it to not upgrade. Fortunatelly I have a backup of it.

[magthe]

I was checking that and when evil-mode is on then m,r,p doesn't work. It works when evil is dissabled. Without evil-mode installed, no error and it works, so I think for evil users, it doesn't work or will need other setup, I dont know. I use evil-mode and I'll need to use the dashboard old version and pin it to not upgrade. Fortunatelly I have a backup of it.

I've removed just the commit that set cycle-section as default (f28b8e1). That seems to work fine.

[ricardoricho]

Ok, well it's an evil issue, they are expecting a symbol but found a lambda. While they solve this issue, you can disable evil in the dashboard buffer by adding it to the evil-buffer-regexps list. I'm not an evil user, but I think this works.

(add-to-list evil-buffer-regexps (cons dashboard-buffer-name nil))

Anyway, I'm feeling that having functions without a name in the keymap is not a good practice.

[magthe]

It's been fixed in evil-collection now.

[Alf-tuta]

The new dashboard version is working now, after the new evil-collection upgrade.