[Mailman-Users] error: site list is missing

[Erich Neuwirth]

i am installing mailman 2.1.1 from source on debian (with postfix).
at the very last step of the installation,
when i try
bin/mailmanctl start
i get
site list is missing: mailman

can somebody tell me what i am doing wrong?

at that moment, i do not have a list
(but some aliases for lists in the alias file).

do i need to create a list before i can run mailmanctl start?