Exim and FBSD 5.3

[Joe Altman]

I know it's an FAQ, and I know that strictly, it's likely to be a
DB/Exim issue, but I've tried the proposed solution[1] to no avail.

So:

I have a toy; it runs FBSD 5.3 and I would like to use Exim for local
and remote delivery.

In my system mail, I am seeing this error:

Tidying Exim hints databases:
   
Tidying Exim hints database /var/spool/exim/db/retry
** Failed to open DBM file /var/spool/exim/db/retry for writing:
   No such file or directory (or Berkeley DB error while opening)

I have this MTA running on a 4.x personal machine, and all is
well. However, it only does localhost delivery. I'd like to use the
5.3 box for internet mail for my domain. 

Running the MTA with the debug flag:

exim -d
Exim version 4.43 (FreeBSD 5.3) uid=0 gid=0 pid=95010 D=fbb95cfd
Probably Berkeley DB version 1.8x (native mode)

So it sees _something_ about the db. This output is what I see on the
4.x box WRT the db version.

The only thing I can think of that might have caused this is that
during the original installation, I installed Exim from a package on
CD, rather than building from source. But: "...that shouldn't
matter...", right?

My query: does anyone have exim on FBSD 5.3 running successfully, that
is, without the error I see? My guess is that the answer from someone
will be: "...of course." but I feel a need to ask.

Thanks in advance for any clues.

[1] Empty the /var/spool/exim/db/ dir; and let exim recreate the
    relevant files.

-- 
The boys I mean are not refined they go with girls who buck and bite
who masturbate with dynamite; they do not give a shit for wit they
kill like you would take a piss...they shake the mountains when they
dance.