diff --git a/debian/changelog b/debian/changelog
index 2c9a953e8a..7ea6a5b287 100644
--- a/debian/changelog
+++ b/debian/changelog
@@ -1,8 +1,10 @@
 tor (0.2.1.0-unreleased-1) XXperimental; urgency=low
 
   * trunk
+  * Warn the admin if the number of file descriptors on his system is
+    tiny.
 
- -- Peter Palfrader <weasel@debian.org>  Wed, 19 Mar 2008 20:09:25 +0100
+ -- Peter Palfrader <weasel@debian.org>  Mon, 07 Jul 2008 13:25:49 +0200
 
 tor (0.2.0.28-rc-1) experimental; urgency=low
 
diff --git a/debian/tor.init b/debian/tor.init
index ea71e94bb2..aa8fa37fd9 100644
--- a/debian/tor.init
+++ b/debian/tor.init
@@ -28,14 +28,26 @@ ARGS=""
 # Let's try to figure our some sane defaults:
 if [ -r /proc/sys/fs/file-max ]; then
 	system_max=`cat /proc/sys/fs/file-max`
-	if [ "$system_max" -gt "80000" ] ; then
-		MAX_FILEDESCRIPTORS=32768
-	elif [ "$system_max" -gt "40000" ] ; then
-		MAX_FILEDESCRIPTORS=16384
-	elif [ "$system_max" -gt "10000" ] ; then
-		MAX_FILEDESCRIPTORS=8192
+	#if [ "$system_max" -gt "80000" ] ; then
+		#MAX_FILEDESCRIPTORS=32768
+	#elif [ "$system_max" -gt "40000" ] ; then
+		#MAX_FILEDESCRIPTORS=16384
+	#elif [ "$system_max" -gt "10000" ] ; then
+		#MAX_FILEDESCRIPTORS=8192
+	if 0; then
+		echo fo
 	else
 		MAX_FILEDESCRIPTORS=1024
+		cat << EOF
+
+Warning: Your system has very few filedescriptors available in total.
+
+Maybe you should try raising that by adding 'fs.file-max=100000' to your
+/etc/sysctl.conf file.  Feel free to pick any number that you deem appropriate.
+Then run 'sysctl -p'.  See /proc/sys/fs/file-max for the current value, and
+file-nr in the same directory for how many of those are used at the moment.
+
+EOF
 	fi
 else
 	MAX_FILEDESCRIPTORS=8192