[Dovecot] Dovecot not honoring configuration settings (auth failure)

[Jeffrey Walton]

On Tue, Apr 1, 2014 at 6:22 AM, Charles Marcus
<CMarcus at media-brokers.com> wrote:
> ...
>
> What you are missing is that there is a very good reason that ONLY the
> output of doveconf -n is wanted here...
>
> It proves that you are using the settings you think you are using.
>

# doveconf -n
# 2.1.7: /etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf
# OS: Linux 3.2.0-4-686-pae i686 Debian 7.4
disable_plaintext_auth = no
log_path = /var/log/dovecot.log
mail_location = mbox:~/mail:INBOX=/var/mail/%u
namespace inbox {
  inbox = yes
  location =
  mailbox Drafts {
    special_use = \Drafts
  }
  mailbox Junk {
    special_use = \Junk
  }
  mailbox Sent {
    special_use = \Sent
  }
  mailbox "Sent Messages" {
    special_use = \Sent
  }
  mailbox Trash {
    special_use = \Trash
  }
  prefix =
}
passdb {
  args = /var/mail/%d/users
  driver = passwd-file
}
passdb {
  driver = pam
}
plugin {
  sieve = ~/.dovecot.sieve
  sieve_dir = ~/sieve
}
protocols = " imap pop3"
ssl_cert = </etc/dovecot/dovecot.pem
ssl_key = </etc/dovecot/private/dovecot.pem
userdb {
  driver = passwd
}

**********

# postconf -n
alias_maps = hash:/etc/postfix/aliases
append_dot_mydomain = no
biff = no
config_directory = /etc/postfix
inet_interfaces = all
inet_protocols = all
mailbox_command =
mailbox_size_limit = 0
mydestination = debian-x2.home.pvt, localhost.home.pvt, localhost
myhostname = debian-x2.home.pvt
mynetworks = 127.0.0.0/8 [::ffff:127.0.0.0]/104 [::1]/128
myorigin = /etc/mailname
readme_directory = no
recipient_delimiter = +
relayhost =
smtp_tls_session_cache_database = btree:${data_directory}/smtp_scache
smtpd_banner = $myhostname ESMTP $mail_name
smtpd_sasl_auth_enable = yes
smtpd_sasl_exceptions_networks = $mynetworks
smtpd_sasl_path = private/auth
smtpd_sasl_security_options = noanonymous
smtpd_sasl_type = dovecot
smtpd_tls_cert_file = /etc/ssl/certs/ssl-cert-snakeoil.pem
smtpd_tls_key_file = /etc/ssl/private/ssl-cert-snakeoil.key
smtpd_tls_protocols = !SSLv2 !SSLv3 !PSK !SRP !KRB5
smtpd_tls_session_cache_database = btree:${data_directory}/smtpd_scache
smtpd_use_tls = yes
virtual_alias_maps = hash:/etc/postfix/aliases
virtual_gid_maps = static:5000
virtual_mailbox_base = /var/mail
virtual_mailbox_domains = hash:/etc/postfix/domains
virtual_mailbox_maps = hash:/etc/postfix/mailboxes
virtual_minimum_uid = 100
virtual_uid_maps = static:5000