15.1 GNU/Linux issues

Linux seems to be the most popular platform for running Mailman. Here are some hints on getting Mailman to run on Linux:

• If you are getting errors with hard link creations and/or you are using a special secure kernel (securelinux/openwall/grsecurity), see the file contrib/README.check_perms_grsecurity in the Mailman source distribution.

  Note that if you are using Linux Mandrake in secure mode, you are probably concerned by this.

• Apparently Mandrake 9.0 changed the permissions on gcc, so if you build as the mailman user, you need to be sure mailman is in the cctools group.

• If you installed Python from your Linux distribution's package manager (e.g. .rpms for Redhat-derived systems or .deb for Debian), you must install the ``development'' package of Python, or you may not get everything you need.

  For example, using Python 2.2 on Debian, you will need to install the python2.2-dev package. On Redhat, you probably need the python2-devel package.

  If you install Python from source, you should be fine.

  One symptom of this problem, although for unknown reasons, is that you might get an error such as this during your install:

   Traceback (most recent call last):
   File "bin/update", line 44, in ?
   import paths
   ImportError: No module named paths
   make: *** [update] Error 1
  

  If this happens, install the Python development package and try configure and make install again. Or install the latest version of Python from source, available from http://www.python.org.

  This problem can manifest itself in other Linux distributions in different ways, although usually it appears as ImportErrors.