Install process breaks its self by design

Merlin at Desktop Masters Merlin at DesktopMasters.com
Sun Mar 29 18:58:36 UTC 2015


Greetings,

I just tried to install Dovecot for the first time.  It was on a virgin 
Ubuntu/Debian server (Version: 1:2.2.9-1ubuntu5) and the install 
failed.   After a bit of struggling I worked out that the install fails 
BY DESIGN.  Spoke about this with a few people and we decided it was 
best to report this issue and request that you redesign the packing so 
it does not fail.  The reason it fails is as follows...

When you install it asks you if you want to use self signed 
certificates.  I have certificates so I said, "No".  At the end of the 
install the script tries to start dovecot.  It cannot because the 
service does not have certificates so it fails.  This causes the script 
to abort and the other packages not to install and breaks the install 
process.  I had to purge dovecot, then install it with the self signed 
certificates.

So we have 2 issues here.  1.  Why allow people to not install 
certificates if it is just going to break the install and confuse them.  
2.  Why are you starting the service right after install when dovecot 
clearly requires manual configuration as part of the setup.

I recommend you resolve this by NOT starting the service as part of the 
install unless it is an upgrade and the service was already running.

~ Merlin


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