From emacs -q, execute:
(add-to-list 'load-path "~/.emacs.d/elisp-build/Pymacs/")
(setq ropemacs-global-prefix "C-x C-9")
(require 'pymacs)
(pymacs-load "ropemacs" "rope-")
On Emacs 24.1, latest Pymacs, rope, ropemacs, ropemode, this will give the error Python: ValueError: chr() arg not in range(256).