Bug#401007: The installer should mention ...

[Vincent.McIntyre@csiro.au]

Please understand that I think the default config you've arrived at
is good. I was just a bit surprised that the exim4 step was "missing";
when it didn't show up I thought something was amiss.

I understand the wish not to bother people with the questions about
MTA configuration, these can be difficult to comprehend and answer 
correctly, even for experienced admins who are new to Debian. (I also
recognize that writing the questions in a translation-friendly way is
at least 10 times more difficult than reading them). And it's time for
etch to go out the door, so I don't wish to introduce delay.

> > Shouldn't the installer mention this?
>
> I don't understand what you are aiming for ...

I'm mainly interested to know that an MTA is running at all.
I just like to worry about what services I have going, I guess.

But can I be greedy and pick two options?
> * The installer should mention with which M.T.A. it comes.
> * The installer should mention for what the Mail Transfer Agent is
>   configured

Perhaps an information screen in the installer could explain:

   I've just set up your Mail Transfer Agent, $MTA.
   At present it is set up for '$MTA_MODE', i.e. to
   $MTA_MODE_EXPLAIN.

   If you want to change this, you will need to reconfigure $MTA
   with $MTA_CONFIG_PROGRAM.

   [OK]

For the present case this would come out as, e.g.

   I've just set up your Mail Transfer Agent, exim4.
   At present it is set up for 'local delivery', i.e. to
   deliver mail only to other users on this computer.

   If you want to change this, you will need to reconfigure
   exim4 with dpkg-reconfigure exim4.

   [OK]

(I'm not actually sure what to use for reconfiguration)

Possibly this screen could go in at medium priority, but I don't
think it hurts to show this much to all users. The above would
certainly have satisfied me. It's probably not worth adding an
option to allow installers to fiddle with the settings at this
point, I find I always have to tweak things later anyway.


Another way to help this issue would be to mention the nice new
default setting in the "What's new" section of the Release Notes.
I'm thinking about a patch to send to debian-doc at the moment,
but feel free to trump me.

Cheers
Vince