diff --git a/dot_bin/executable_bootstrap_pkgs b/dot_bin/executable_bootstrap_pkgs
index c5ff0fe..e6eb2b8 100644
--- a/dot_bin/executable_bootstrap_pkgs
+++ b/dot_bin/executable_bootstrap_pkgs
@@ -63,8 +63,9 @@ run_yay() {
 
     ## packages for emacs (install emacs first to read the config)
     pacman --needed -S emacs
-    sudo -u "$home_user" emacs -batch -l "$emacs_dir/init.el" --eval \
-          '(print (format "pkgs: %s" (s-join " " (nd/get-aur-dependencies t))))'
+    # call emacs once to initialize it
+    sudo -u "$home_user" emacs -batch -l "$emacs_dir/init.el"
+    # get a list of packages emacs needs
     IFS=' ' read -r -a emacs_pkgs \
        < <(sudo -u "$home_user" emacs -batch -l "$emacs_dir/init.el" --eval \
                  '(print (format "pkgs: %s" (s-join " " (nd/get-aur-dependencies t))))' \
diff --git a/run_once_after_10_install-packages.sh b/run_once_after_10_install-packages.sh
index 196ad27..b8cb1df 100644
--- a/run_once_after_10_install-packages.sh
+++ b/run_once_after_10_install-packages.sh
@@ -52,7 +52,7 @@ sudo "$HOME/.bin/bootstrap_pkgs" "$(whoami)" "$HOME/.local/share/packages" "$ema
 
 IFS=' ' read -r -a emacs_stack_pkgs \
    < <(emacs -batch -l "$emacs_dir/init.el" --eval \
-             '(print (format "phgs: %s" (s-join " " (nd/get-stack-dependencies))))' \
+             '(print (format "pkgs: %s" (s-join " " (nd/get-stack-dependencies))))' \
              2>/dev/null | \
            sed -n -e 's/"pkgs: \(.*\)"/\1/p')
 echo "Emacs requires the following Haskell packages: ${emacs_stack_pkgs[*]}"