Upgrading Emacs' Built-In org-mode in 4 Easy Steps

The package of org-mode that ships with my latest emacs (Fedora 20) is version 7.9. It works great, of course, but it turns out the major version revision adds a lot of extra functionality. Unfortunately, on two separate occasions my attempt to install the newest orgmode from the package gave me real problems, especially with un-initialized variables. You can see my plea for help here: org-mode broken dynamic clock: Symbol’s function definition is void: org-defvaralias.

However, I finally got around to trying again and believe I found the solution here. Here’s how I applied it:

1. Kill my current session of Emacs using M-x`kill-emacs` . I use emacs client, and this kills the whole thing (not just the window you have open).
2. Start a new emacs instance with the command emacs -q. The -q flag prevents it from loading my .emacs file, which includes many references to org-mode stuff.
3. Use M-x`list-packages` to show the install list, and find org-mode. Mark it with i for installation, and hit x for “install.”
4. After it’s installed, put at the top of your .emacs file:

;; Configure before loading org mode (package-initialize) (package-initialize)

Now save everything, close this naked instance, and start Emacs your normal way. I’ve tested the stuff that used to be broken and so far, we’re live! I’ll post any edits/later problems to this page.

EDIT Since one of my major reasons for upgrading was to export to markdown, I had to take more step to enable it. It’s posted here