Cannot log in to IMAP server and logs are unclear as to why

Fri Jun 5 23:42:54 EEST 2020

Hi Aki,

Again, thanks very much for your response. Your solution of adding the colons worked. Actually, I futzed with it a little bit and it works with as few as 2 added colons.

This is interesting since in the examples section of https://doc.dovecot.org/configuration_manual/authentication/passwd_file/ it explicitly states:

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

This file can be used as a passdb:

user:{plain}password

user2:{plain}password2

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

So I took that to mean it could also be used as a userdb (since I couldn’t find anything explicitly defining the minimum allowed userdb) as long as the needed values of UID, GID and HOME were somehow provided (in my case, these were set in global configuration). The examples had default_fields values provided for UID, GID and HOME, so I moved the setting of those fields there and tried again in case that was what was messing things up.

Here is the revised doveconf -n:

# 2.2.36 (1f10bfa63): /etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf

# OS: Linux 3.10.0-1062.12.1.el7.x86_64 x86_64 CentOS Linux release 7.7.1908 (Core)

# Hostname: imap

first_valid_uid = 1000

listen = 192.168.1.207

mail_location = sdbox:~/mail

mbox_write_locks = fcntl

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 =

separator = /

}

passdb {

args = scheme=PLAIN username_format=%u /etc/dovecot/users

driver = passwd-file

}

protocols = imap lmtp

service lmtp {

group = vmail

unix_listener /var/spool/postfix/private/dovecot-lmtp {

group = postfix

mode = 0600

user = postfix

}

user = vmail

}

ssl = no

ssl_cert = </etc/pki/dovecot/certs/dovecot.pem

ssl_key = # hidden, use -P to show it

userdb {

args = username_format=%u /etc/dovecot/users

default_fields = uid=vmail gid=vmail home=/var/vmail/%d/%n

driver = passwd-file

}

But when I tried logging in again, I had the same results. It only works with the 2 extra colons at the end of each passwd-file record.

I’m not sure if this makes it a bug, a lapse in documentation or if there was something I missed that explains all this. What do you think?

In the end I now have my fix, so I very much appreciate your assistance.

Thanks,

Scott

________________________________
From: Aki Tuomi <aki.tuomi at open-xchange.com>
Sent: June 5, 2020 1:44 AM
To: Scott A. Wozny <sawozny at hotmail.com>; dovecot at dovecot.org <dovecot at dovecot.org>
Subject: Re: Cannot log in to IMAP server and logs are unclear as to why

Hi!

I tried with your config and I got:

Jun 05 08:43:30 auth-worker(11465): Error: passwd-file /etc/dovecot/users: User test at test.com is missing userdb info

This is because your line is missing sufficient amount of colons, try changing

test at test.com:{plain}test

into

test at test.com:{plain}test:::::::::::

Aki

> On 05/06/2020 02:31 Scott A. Wozny <sawozny at hotmail.com> wrote:
>
>
> Hi Aki,
>
>
> Thanks for the response. I'm, unfortunately, a little confused. This is the only line in /etc/dovecot/users:
>
>
> test at test.com:{plain}test
>
>
> Which matches your suggestion to use the full smtp address as the username and log in with it, which I did for my test. Can you specify what it was you thought I should try differently?
>
>
> Regardless, I see your point about trying a less complex username. In the end, I want to host 3 small domains on one server which looks well within Dovecot's capability, but I'll try taking the use of the domain name out of the equation for now to try and narrow down / correct the errors.
>
>
> Thanks,
>
>
> Scott
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
> From: Aki Tuomi <aki.tuomi at open-xchange.com>
>  Sent: June 4, 2020 3:14 AM
>  To: Scott A. Wozny <sawozny at hotmail.com>; dovecot at dovecot.org <dovecot at dovecot.org>
>  Subject: Re: Cannot log in to IMAP server and logs are unclear as to why
>
>  > On 04/06/2020 02:51 Scott A. Wozny <sawozny at hotmail.com> wrote:
>  >
>  >
>  > I’m trying a super basic config based upon https://wiki.dovecot.org/HowTo/PostfixDovecotLMTP but before I work on shipping mail through Postfix to DoveCot, I wanted to make sure IMAP is working first, but I can’t even get a basic login to so I thought I’d see if the gurus on the list might be able to point out I’m doing wrong. The documentation is pretty good, but there were some gaps I had to guess at and I’m presuming that’s where I went wrong. I’ve turned SELinux to permissive mode, for now.
>  >
>  >
>  > Here’s the doveconf -n:
>  >
>  >
>  > # 2.2.36 (1f10bfa63): /etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf
>
>  <snip/>
>
>  auth_username_format = %Ln
>
>  should fix your problem.
>
>  alternatively you need to change /etc/dovecot/users to have
>
>  test at test.com:....
>
>  instead of
>
>  test:....
>
>  and log in always with full username.
>
>  Aki
>
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