[Dovecot] Dovecot + Outlook express + permission denied

[Nagy László]

  Hello,

I have an account (called awesome) that does not have access to some 
public shared folders. I can use this account from Mozilla Thunderbird, 
but I cannot use it from Outlook. I opened /var/log/maillog. When I try 
to list all folders, I get this in the log:

Dec 28 09:57:38 designaproduct dovecot: IMAP(awesome): 
opendir(/var/mail/public) failed: Permission denied

However, outlook displays three folders: Inbox, Public and Trash. It 
says "One or more problems occured downloading your list of folder from 
your account." That is fine, except that not all folders are listed. 
(There are others: "Contact", "Calendar" and "ShopzeusArchive".)

Then I subscribe to "Inbox" and "Trash". I DO NOT subscribe to "Public", 
because the account has no access to "Public". Then I click on "Inbox" 
(inside outlook) and I get this very long text:

Dec 28 09:57:54 designaproduct dovecot: imap-login: Login: 
user=<awesome>, method=PLAIN, rip=62.112.202.90, lip=195.228.74.135, TLS
Dec 28 09:57:54 designaproduct dovecot: IMAP(awesome): Effective 
uid=1029, gid=1003
Dec 28 09:57:54 designaproduct dovecot: IMAP(awesome): Namespace: 
type=private, prefix=#mbox/, sep=/, inbox=yes, hidden=yes, subscriptions=no
Dec 28 09:57:54 designaproduct dovecot: IMAP(awesome): mbox: 
data=/home/awesome/:INBOX=/var/mail/awesome
Dec 28 09:57:54 designaproduct dovecot: IMAP(awesome): mbox: 
root=/home/awesome, index=/home/awesome, inbox=/var/mail/awesome
Dec 28 09:57:54 designaproduct dovecot: IMAP(awesome): Namespace: 
type=private, prefix=, sep=/, inbox=no, hidden=no, subscriptions=no
Dec 28 09:57:54 designaproduct dovecot: IMAP(awesome): maildir: 
data=/home/awesome/Maildir
Dec 28 09:57:54 designaproduct dovecot: IMAP(awesome): maildir: 
root=/home/awesome/Maildir, index=/home/awesome/Maildir, control=, inbox=
Dec 28 09:57:54 designaproduct dovecot: IMAP(awesome): Namespace: 
type=public, prefix=Public/, sep=/, inbox=no, hidden=no, subscriptions=no
Dec 28 09:57:54 designaproduct dovecot: IMAP(awesome): maildir: 
data=/var/mail/public:CONTROL=/home/awesome/Maildir/public/control
Dec 28 09:57:54 designaproduct dovecot: IMAP(awesome): maildir: 
root=/var/mail/public, index=/var/mail/public, 
control=/home/awesome/Maildir/public/control, inbox=
Dec 28 09:57:54 designaproduct dovecot: IMAP(awesome): 
lstat(/var/mail/public/cur) failed: Permission denied
Dec 28 09:57:54 designaproduct dovecot: IMAP(awesome): Sending log 
messages too fast, throttling..
Dec 28 09:57:54 designaproduct dovecot: IMAP(awesome): Namespace: 
type=public, prefix=Calendars/, sep=/, inbox=no, hidden=no, subscriptions=no
Dec 28 09:57:55 designaproduct dovecot: IMAP(awesome): maildir: 
data=/var/mail/calendars:CONTROL=/home/awesome/Maildir/calendars/control
Dec 28 09:57:55 designaproduct dovecot: IMAP(awesome): maildir: 
root=/var/mail/calendars, index=/var/mail/calendars, 
control=/home/awesome/Maildir/calendars/control, inbox=
Dec 28 09:57:55 designaproduct dovecot: IMAP(awesome): 
lstat(/var/mail/calendars/cur) failed: Permission denied
Dec 28 09:57:55 designaproduct dovecot: IMAP(awesome): Namespace: 
type=public, prefix=Contacts/, sep=/, inbox=no, hidden=no, subscriptions=no
Dec 28 09:57:55 designaproduct dovecot: IMAP(awesome): maildir: 
data=/var/mail/contacts:CONTROL=/home/awesome/Maildir/contacts/control
Dec 28 09:57:55 designaproduct dovecot: IMAP(awesome): maildir: 
root=/var/mail/contacts, index=/var/mail/contacts, 
control=/home/awesome/Maildir/contacts/control, inbox=
Dec 28 09:57:55 designaproduct dovecot: IMAP(awesome): 
lstat(/var/mail/contacts/cur) failed: Permission denied
Dec 28 09:57:55 designaproduct dovecot: IMAP(awesome): Namespace: 
type=public, prefix=ShopzeusArchive/, sep=/, inbox=no, hidden=no, 
subscriptions=no
Dec 28 09:57:55 designaproduct dovecot: IMAP(awesome): maildir: 
data=/var/mail/shopzeusarchive:CONTROL=/home/awesome/Maildir/shopzeusarchive/control
Dec 28 09:57:55 designaproduct dovecot: IMAP(awesome): maildir: 
root=/var/mail/shopzeusarchive, index=/var/mail/shopzeusarchive, 
control=/home/awesome/Maildir/shopzeusarchive/control, inbox=
Dec 28 09:57:55 designaproduct dovecot: IMAP(awesome): 
lstat(/var/mail/shopzeusarchive/cur) failed: Permission denied

It is very strange. Why outlook wants to open these folders? I only 
clicked on "Inbox", it should only open "Inbox", am I right? Outlook 
says "Could not select 'Inbox' on the IMAP server. You might try 
refreshing your folders list to synchronize with the IMAP server." But 
this is a lie. It tried to open many other folders, not just "INBOX".

I think that my dovecot configuration is okay. I have different public 
and private folders. Some users can access all of them, others cannot. 
Using different groups of users, I can distribute permissions without 
problems. But I cannot make dovecot "hide" shared folders. Nor can I 
force all of my users to use Thunderbird. So how can I make outlook working?

Thanks,

   Laszlo