[Dovecot] Dovecot crashing with "Status userdb: Empty key (=)"

[Bill Cole]

At 6:12 PM +0100 10/25/07, Mark Maynereid wrote:
>Hi,
>
>Dovecot is crashing at startup on my system:
>
>mantrid:/etc/apt# tail /var/log/mail.err
>Oct 25 17:10:50 mantrid dovecot: Auth process died too early - shutting down
>Oct 25 17:10:50 mantrid dovecot: auth(default): Status userdb: Empty key (=)
>Oct 25 17:10:50 mantrid dovecot: child 21810 (auth) returned error 89
>Oct 25 17:10:51 mantrid dovecot: Temporary failure in creating login
>processes,
>
>I have also noticed this error:
>mantrid:/home/vmail# tail /home/vmail/dovecot-deliver.log
>deliver(support at unitdb.com): "2007-10-25 04:59:54 "Error:
>net_connect(/var/run/dovecot/auth-master) failed: No such file or directory
>
>I've been trying to implement the tutorial at:
>http://workaround.org/articles/ispmail-etch/
>which seemed to be going well until the end of step 6 and I've posted a
>message on their mailing list but figured this looks like a deeper problem
>hence the post here also.
>
>System info:
>dovecot-common 1.0.rc15-2etch1
>dovecot-imapd  1.0.rc15-2etch1
>dovecot-pop3d  1.0.rc15-2etch1
>Debian stable 4.0 (Etch) but running mixed on some packages
>Intel(R) Celeron(R) CPU 2.40GHz
>Ext3 filesystem
>
>mantrid:/etc/init.d# dovecot -n
># /etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf
>log_timestamp: %Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S
>login_dir: /var/run/dovecot/login
>login_executable: /usr/lib/dovecot/imap-login
>mail_extra_groups: mail
>mail_location: maildir:/home/vmail/%d/%n
>auth default:
>   mechanisms: plain login
>   debug: yes
>   passdb:
>     driver: sql
>     args: /etc/dovecot/dovecot-sql.conf
>   userdb:
>     driver: passwd
>   userdb:
>     driver: static
>     args: args = uid=5000 gid=5000 home=/home/vmail/%d/%n allow_all_users=yes

This looks like you may have a typo in dovecot.conf. Maybe an extra 'args = '



-- 
Bill Cole
bill at scconsult.com