Thanks so much all. I was missing a few items:
protocols = imap # thanks to Timo Sirainen
# thanks to Noel Butler service imap-login { inet_listener imap { port = 0 } inet_listener imaps { address = * port = 993 } service_count = 1 }
Here is my final doveconf -n with listener successfully running on 993:
# 2.0.18: /etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf # OS: Linux 3.2.5-grsec x86_64 Debian wheezy/sid ext4 auth_debug = yes auth_mechanisms = plain login auth_verbose = yes first_valid_gid = 1030 first_valid_uid = 1030 info_log_path = /var/log/dovecot-info.log last_valid_gid = 1030 last_valid_uid = 1030 log_path = /var/log/dovecot.log log_timestamp = "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S " mail_debug = yes mail_location = maildir:/home/vmail/%d/%n/Maildir passdb { args = /home/vmail/%d/etc/passwd driver = passwd-file } protocols = imap service auth { unix_listener /var/spool/postfix/private/auth { group = postfix mode = 0660 user = postfix } user = root } service imap-login { inet_listener imap { port = 0 } inet_listener imaps { address = * port = 993 } service_count = 1 } service ssl-params { type = startup } ssl_cert =