Found this by chance, installing the same package on one 10.7 and one 10.6 machine. There is a binary package for 10.6 but not for 10.7, which reveals the problem.
When installing from a binary package, the notification that a port requires a subsequent “load” step is not shown, and that step does not seem to happen automatically (which is correct!).
Example on a 10.7 machine for which there happened not to be a binary package:
Humber:~ williamg$ sudo port install tuntaposx
Password:
---> Fetching archive for tuntaposx
---> Attempting to fetch tuntaposx-20090913_1.darwin_11.x86_64.tbz2 from http://packages.macports.org/tuntaposx
---> Fetching tuntaposx
---> Attempting to fetch tuntap_20090913_src.tar.gz from http://lil.fr.distfiles.macports.org/tuntaposx
---> Verifying checksum(s) for tuntaposx
---> Extracting tuntaposx
---> Applying patches to tuntaposx
---> Configuring tuntaposx
---> Building tuntaposx
---> Staging tuntaposx into destroot
---> Creating launchd control script
###########################################################
# A startup item has been generated that will aid in
# starting tuntaposx with launchd. It is disabled
# by default. Execute the following command to start it,
# and to cause it to launch at startup:
#
# sudo port load tuntaposx
###########################################################
Warning: tuntaposx installs files outside the common directory structure.
---> Installing tuntaposx @20090913_1
---> Activating tuntaposx @20090913_1
**********************************************************************
* Warning: tuntaposx virtual device kernel extension loaded already. *
* Maybe you have installed the tuntaposx package already without *
* using MacPorts, e.g. by installing Tunnelblick openvpn GUI. See *
* kextstat(8), kextload(8) and kextunload(8) for manual handling. *
**********************************************************************
---> Cleaning tuntaposx
(That final warning isn't relevant, I have an old non-macports tuntap installed at the moment, which I'll get rid of in due course ;)
Example on a 10.6 machine, for which there is a binary package:
$ sudo port install tuntaposx
---> Fetching archive for tuntaposx
---> Attempting to fetch tuntaposx-20090913_1+universal.darwin_10.i386-x86_64.tbz2 from http://packages.macports.org/tuntaposx
---> Attempting to fetch tuntaposx-20090913_1+universal.darwin_10.i386-x86_64.tbz2.rmd160 from http://packages.macports.org/tuntaposx
---> Installing tuntaposx @20090913_1+universal
---> Activating tuntaposx @20090913_1+universal
---> Cleaning tuntaposx
504 ~
$
So: The message marked with #s about the startup item should be displayed when installing from a binary package. I expect this is actually a generic bug for all ports, but leaving port as tuntaposx for now, since that's where I discovered it. Please change component appropriately if that's true!
Cc Me!