What happens if you run Emacs with an ~/.emacs which only
contains the line (recentf-mode 1)? Do you get the submenu in the File
menu?
I get the same error message as in my initial post.
Thanks again. Do you have any other idea?
You need (require 'recentf) in your .emacs!
But this does not give me the menu on top, right?
If I include and have it followed by the (recentf-mode t), I have again
the same error. :-(
As I re-read this post 2 things jump out at me.
1) When it 'works' you are doing something that makes recentf autoload
Thus my suggestion that you need (require 'recentf)
2) every time you get the error you are using (recentf-mode t)
rather than putting '(recentf-mode t) in your (custom-set-variables ...
section.
There is obviously a difference although I have no idea what it might
be. Turning on debug-on-error should show a trace of the activity that
leads to your error.