[Dovecot] Just trying to make dovecot work.

[Ed W]

On 05/08/2012 06:22, Peter Snow wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I have to say that Dovecot is certainly the most challenging piece of 
> software I've ever had the pleasure of setting up (due mainly to the 
> reams of largely unhelpful documentation). After 36 almost non-stop 
> hours reading and trying, I finally end up here. :-)
>
> I really would appreciate your help - and many thanks in advance!

Phew, haven't you set yourself up for a hostile response..?

It's only an opinion, but I would say that the Dovecot docs are rather 
helpful and thorough?  Also dovecot ships with an almost working config 
out of the box, really you only need to adjust a couple of settings to 
achieve most setups.

OK, reading your log files, I think this is probably the clue?



> /var/log/dovecot.log
> (showing unsuccessful login)
>
> ***************************************************************
> Aug 04 21:32:41 IMAP(peter): Error: user peter: Couldn't drop 
> privileges: User is missing UID (see mail_uid setting)
> Aug 04 21:32:41 IMAP(peter): Error: Internal error occurred. Refer to 
> server log for more information.
> ***************************************************************


I don't use that auth method so I don't want to give you a definitive 
suggestion, but we can certainly use google to get some ideas:
     http://lmgtfy.com/?q=dovecot+mail_uid+

Third link down seems to cover your question.  Basically says you need 
to define the setting listed above, but also why.


Note, I think it's easy to level critique against dovecot auth, but if 
you look for a few moments longer you will see that you are probably 
just criticising flexibility.  You can use a very wide array of database 
types to store your auth information and with that flexibility comes the 
requirement to actually define your specific choice.

Some people run a multi-tennanted system and like to be able to run each 
user under their own uid, hence that being flexible.  Others want to use 
LDAP or a database to store auth info (I think you can even use both at 
the same time).  It's even possible to use both at the same time I 
believe, or to lookup users in one db, and passwords in another.

Note, I don't know your requirements, but you might want to look at some 
kind of database for your user storage if you have more than a fairly 
simple installation?  Either LDAP or sql is likely to give you more 
flexibility than a flat file pwdb, but I don't know your requirements, 
so just a thought

Finally note that there are literally dozens of "how to install dovecot" 
guides on the internet that will help you get a working setup with 
various auth db choices.  Once you understand the big picture using one 
of those guides you will be able to customise things to a very specific 
situation

Good luck

Ed W