[ltp] programs take much too long to start

[morpheus]

> 2. At my Thinkpad the problem was an empty  /etc/network/interfaces file! Every time I pluged in the Ethernet-cable and started dhcpd I got the same behavior like you. So I added the following lines to the file:
> 
> auto lo
> iface lo inet loopback
> iface eth0 inet dhcp
> 

Oh yes (smacks palm on forehead)...that reminds me I had a similar
problem where some process (still not sure which one) was bringing down
the local loopback interface lo, and this would cause lots of problems
from delays to localhost references not resolving.  You could try 
# ifconfig lo 127.0.0.1 netmask 255.255.255.0 up
-m