[Dovecot] dovecot: pop3-login: Internal login failure - howto add dovecot users that are NO server users

[Hans Neukomm]

Hi all

my Linux system: opensuse 11.2
my mail system: postfix - dovecot

my key problem since several days googling and testing is:

how can I have a pop account with dovecot for a user if that user is NO
linux system user

it appears to me that most auth mechanisms somehow expect a mail user
also to be a linux system user  either to be found in the 
/etc/passwd
or
/etc/alias

on my 4 servers I have NO users at all registered, NO login at all for
any normal user - incl me. I strictly work as root and with serverkey
auth on a tightly secured system since many years

my goal is to have the most simple possible mail system - one user to
send/receive (me) may be a very few friends with a pop3 account - that's
that I have since many years - using cyrus.

now I want to move to dovecot and I missed somehow since many days
searching to find a simple howto add mail users - just for mail - pop3
and smtp, no imap, no home directory, etc

I think that most of the errors I get in my mail log are about user
unknown, I try different variations of postfix main.cf found in www the
result always is some error like the newest

dovecot: pop3-login: Internal login failures - below the last mail log -
after I added a user to /etc/passwd

hans:x:1000:100:xxxx yyyyyyy::/sbin/nologin

-------------

dovecot: auth(default): client in:
AUTH#0111#011PLAIN#011service=pop3#011secured#011lip=127.0.0.1#011rip=127.0.0.1#011lport=110#011rport=53082#011resp=AGhhbnMASThDc2F3TzgxRHhjUmVNOHVCaDBM                                                                                                                                                                     
dovecot: auth(default): passwd-file(hans,127.0.0.1): lookup: user=hans
file=/etc/dovecot/passwd                                                                    
dovecot: auth(default): client out:
OK#0111#011user=hans                                                                                                           
dovecot: auth(default): master in:
REQUEST#0112#01115510#0111                                                                                                      
dovecot: auth(default): passwd(hans,127.0.0.1):
lookup                                                                                                             
dovecot: auth(default): master out:
USER#0112#011hans#011system_groups_user=hans#011uid=1000#011gid=100#011home=                                                   
dovecot: dovecot: Relative home directory paths not supported (user
hans):                                                                                         
dovecot: pop3-login: Internal login failure (auth failed, 1 attempts):
user=<hans>, method=PLAIN, rip=127.0.0.1, lip=127.0.0.1, secured 

-------------

WITHOUT the user hans entry in /etc/passwd

I get the following mail log errors

-------------

Jul  1 02:43:01 kriyayoga dovecot: auth(default): new auth connection:
pid=17860
Jul  1 02:43:22 kriyayoga dovecot: auth(default): client in:
AUTH#0111#011PLAIN#011service=pop3#011lip=78.46.101.111#011rip=124.108.51.96#011lport=110#011rport=50152#011resp=AGhhbnMASThDc2F3TzgxRHhjUmVNOHVCaDBM
Jul  1 02:43:22 kriyayoga dovecot: auth(default):
passwd-file(hans,124.108.51.96): lookup: user=hans
file=/etc/dovecot/passwd
Jul  1 02:43:22 kriyayoga dovecot: auth(default): client out:
OK#0111#011user=hans
Jul  1 02:43:22 kriyayoga dovecot: auth(default): master in:
REQUEST#0112#01117840#0111
Jul  1 02:43:22 kriyayoga dovecot: auth(default):
passwd(hans,124.108.51.96): lookup
Jul  1 02:43:22 kriyayoga dovecot: auth(default):
passwd(hans,124.108.51.96): unknown user
Jul  1 02:43:22 kriyayoga dovecot: auth(default):
userdb(hans,124.108.51.96): user not found from userdb passwd
Jul  1 02:43:22 kriyayoga dovecot: auth(default): master out:
NOTFOUND#0112
Jul  1 02:43:22 kriyayoga dovecot: pop3-login: Internal login failure
(auth failed, 1 attempts): user=<hans>, method=PLAIN, rip=124.108.51.96,
lip=78.46.101.111

-------------


any help or pointer to a solution or howto setup dovecot pop3 accounts
for non-system users would be MOST welcome


greetings

hans
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