I just ran into this very thing today because I didn't realize the packages were put into a submodule and I'm in the habit of not reading error messages. However, after trying some things and getting this error multiple times, I finally read it carefully. The answer is in your skimmed "something something" text. Just go to the root of the repo and do a 'git submodule init' then 'git submodule update'.<div> </div><div>I think it would be helpful if these instructions were added to the install readme (unless it is there and I missed it). On Saturday, August 17, 2013, Ben Goetter wrote: <blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"> I apologize for the semi-clueless nature of this message. I know that Racket's been going through a lot of changes in the last few months. Rip van Winkle here is trying to come back up to speed. I did a fresh git clone, then built Racket's core on Windows with VS2008 via the script in racket/racket/src/worksp/build.bat. Apparently this built only the core (thank you, Vince on irc). I got a working racket.exe with some intrinsics included, but no drracket or the standard libraries (gracket -z complained that it could not find racket/racket/collects/racket/gui/init.rkt). At Vince's advice, I tried raco pkg install -i main-distribution to complete my installation, but got a SSL error Resolving "main-distribution" via <a href="https://pkg.racket-lang.org" target="_blank">https://pkg.racket-lang.org</a> SSLv23_client_method: implementation not found; no arguments provided ...collects/openssl/mzssl.rkt:397:18 So then I did something radical: I read the top-level README.txt and followed its directions. nmake win32-in-place This rebuilt the core, created a spurious "-p" subdirectory, and finally triggered the complain-no-submodule target: "Native packages are not in the expected subdirectory" something something "git submodule" something Generally, what's the new proper practice for building my own Racket on Windows? Build.bat no longer suffices by itself. Thanks, Ben ____________________ Racket Users list: <a href="http://lists.racket-lang.org/users" target="_blank">http://lists.racket-lang.org/users</a> </blockquote></div>