Re: Starting MTA: why does it take so long?

[Chris <list.hurschler@gmx.de>]

On Thursday 06 September 2007 21:35, Celejar wrote:
> On Thu, 6 Sep 2007 21:13:02 +0200
>
> Chris <list.hurschler@gmx.de> wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > I have several desktop systems, and regadless of whether I leave exim4
> > unconfigured, or setup for local system use only, it takes quite a while
> > to start on boot.
> >
> > I don't really know what the MTA is supposed to do on a laptop or desktop
> > system, but I've read that it shouldn't be uninstallted.  Is this really
> > the case?
>
> It shouldn't be uninstalled since many daemons and system management
> tasks report via email, and they expect to find an MTA to send the mail
> with.
>
> If your system isn't connected to the internet on boot, have you
>
> configured minimal-dns? From 'dpkg-reconfigure exim4-config':
> > In normal mode of operation Exim does DNS lookups at startup, and when  
> > │ │ receiving or delivering messages. This is for logging purposes and   
> >    │ │ allows keeping down the number of hard-coded values in the        
> >       │ │ configuration.                                                 
> >          │ │                                                             
> >             │ │ If this system does not have a DNS full service resolver
> > available at    │ │ all times (for example if its Internet access is a
> > dial-up line using    │ │ dial-on-demand), this might have unwanted
> > consequences. For example,     │ │ starting up Exim or running the queue
> > (even with no messages waiting)    │ │ might trigger a costly
> > dial-up-event.                                    │ │                    
> >                                                      │ │ This option
> > should be selected if this system is using Dial-on-Demand.   │ │ If it
> > has always-on Internet access, this option should be disabled.    >
> >
> > Thanks for any suggestions,
> >
> > Chris
>
> Celejar
> --

Thanks, I tried that and it didn't help, but I'm not sure I know which of the 
five types of setup choices really applies to me, and I'll have to read up 
some more on that.

I have to say that  I'm actually only interested in using Debian as a desktop 
system, and sort of feel like it is making me install a mail server.  I 
wouldn't care if choosing "no configuration at this time" didn't cause 
problems, but in my case it seems to be timing out on boot.

Thanks,

C

-- 
C. Hurschler