Hi My name is Keith Smith. I am a PHP developer and have been a freelance PHP developer since 2006.
I have been working on a PHP web server in the hope of learning more about Linux hosting server administration. Over the years I have had the opportunity to create many PHP virtual hosts. I have not worked with or configured BIND, Postfix, and Dovecot before about 3 weeks ago.
My home server is connected to the Internet via my home office business cable account. No blocked ports and I am able run one or more servers.
I am running Ubuntu 20.04lts / Apache / MySql (or a clone) / PHP / BIND9 / Postfix / Dovecot / Let's Encrypt SSL.
My server’s FQDN is : soho.keiththewebguy.com as is my reverse lookup on my IP : 98.191.108.149.
The purpose is for learning. I intend to run one such configured server out of my home office running one domain or more (virtual hosts) and would like to configure Postfix/Dovecot to service one or more email addresses per virtual hosting.
I have BIND working. At least enough that a simple web page can be displayed. I've installed Postfix and Dovecot and am getting an authentication issue that shows up in the logs.
I do not know all that you might need. Please let me know.
I admit I find Postfix and Dovecot difficult to understand. I am at the newbie stage. I've scoured the Internet looking for answers.
After I configured Postfix and Dovecot I issued the commend : telnet keiththewebguy.com 25 on my web server. It returned:
Trying 98.191.108.149... Connected to keiththewebguy.com. Escape character is '^]'. 220 soho.keiththewebguy.com ESMTP Postfix
I issued : ehlo soho.keiththewebguy.com
250-soho.keiththewebguy.com 250-PIPELINING 250-SIZE 10240000 250-VRFY 250-ETRN 250-STARTTLS 250-AUTH PLAIN LOGIN 250-ENHANCEDSTATUSCODES 250-8BITMIME 250-DSN 250 CHUNKING
I issued : quit
221 2.0.0 Bye Connection closed by foreign host.
I assume this means things are configured correctly.
I am looking at both logs:
/var/log/mail.err which contains no content.
/var/log/mail.log which is verbose.
To /etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf I added the following for debugging:
auth_verbose = yes auth_verbose_passwords = no auth_debug = yes auth_debug_passwords = yes mail_debug = yes verbose_ssl = yes
I am trying to connect using Thunderbird.
Config:
IMAP port 993 / ssl/TLS / Normal Password / username : keith@keiththewebguy.com and password that is in /etc/dovecot/dovecot-users
SMTP port 25 / STARTTLS / Normal Password / username : keith@keiththewebguy.com and password that is in /etc/dovecot/dovecot-users
Thunderbird tests these configurations and reports them as found on the server.
When I press the done button to create the email account I get a message "Unable to log into the server. Probably wrong configuration, username, or password.".
The output when trying to create the Thunderbird account:
/var/log/mail.log
=============== Jul 5 18:58:35 soho dovecot: imap-login: Debug: SSL: where=0x10, ret=1: before SSL initialization Jul 5 18:58:35 soho dovecot: imap-login: Debug: SSL: where=0x2001, ret=1: before SSL initialization Jul 5 18:58:35 soho dovecot: imap-login: Debug: SSL: where=0x2002, ret=-1: before SSL initialization Jul 5 18:58:35 soho dovecot: imap-login: Debug: SSL: where=0x2001, ret=1: before SSL initialization Jul 5 18:58:35 soho dovecot: imap-login: Debug: SSL: where=0x2001, ret=1: SSLv3/TLS read client hello Jul 5 18:58:35 soho dovecot: imap-login: Debug: SSL: where=0x2001, ret=1: SSLv3/TLS write server hello Jul 5 18:58:35 soho dovecot: imap-login: Debug: SSL: where=0x2001, ret=1: SSLv3/TLS write certificate Jul 5 18:58:35 soho dovecot: imap-login: Debug: SSL: where=0x2001, ret=1: SSLv3/TLS write key exchange Jul 5 18:58:35 soho dovecot: imap-login: Debug: SSL: where=0x2001, ret=1: SSLv3/TLS write server done Jul 5 18:58:35 soho dovecot: imap-login: Debug: SSL: where=0x2002, ret=-1: SSLv3/TLS write server done Jul 5 18:58:35 soho dovecot: message repeated 2 times: [ imap-login: Debug: SSL: where=0x2002, ret=-1: SSLv3/TLS write server done] Jul 5 18:58:35 soho dovecot: imap-login: Debug: SSL: where=0x2001, ret=1: SSLv3/TLS write server done Jul 5 18:58:35 soho dovecot: imap-login: Debug: SSL: where=0x2001, ret=1: SSLv3/TLS read client key exchange Jul 5 18:58:35 soho dovecot: imap-login: Debug: SSL: where=0x2001, ret=1: SSLv3/TLS read change cipher spec Jul 5 18:58:35 soho dovecot: imap-login: Debug: SSL: where=0x2001, ret=1: SSLv3/TLS read finished Jul 5 18:58:35 soho dovecot: imap-login: Debug: SSL: where=0x2001, ret=1: SSLv3/TLS write session ticket Jul 5 18:58:35 soho dovecot: imap-login: Debug: SSL: where=0x2001, ret=1: SSLv3/TLS write change cipher spec Jul 5 18:58:35 soho dovecot: imap-login: Debug: SSL: where=0x2001, ret=1: SSLv3/TLS write finished Jul 5 18:58:35 soho dovecot: imap-login: Debug: SSL: where=0x20, ret=1: SSL negotiation finished successfully Jul 5 18:58:35 soho dovecot: imap-login: Debug: SSL: where=0x2002, ret=1: SSL negotiation finished successfully Jul 5 18:58:35 soho dovecot: auth: Debug: Loading modules from directory: /usr/lib/dovecot/modules/auth Jul 5 18:58:35 soho dovecot: auth: Debug: Module loaded: /usr/lib/dovecot/modules/auth/lib20_auth_var_expand_crypt.so Jul 5 18:58:35 soho dovecot: auth: Debug: Read auth token secret from /var/run/dovecot/auth-token-secret.dat Jul 5 18:58:35 soho dovecot: auth: Debug: passwd-file /etc/dovecot/dovecot-users: Read 1 users in 0 secs Jul 5 18:58:35 soho dovecot: auth: Debug: auth client connected (pid=2021) Jul 5 18:58:35 soho dovecot: auth: Debug: client in: AUTH#0111#011PLAIN#011service=imap#011secured=tls#011session=wVJ55GTGvspiv2yV#011lip=192.168.1.10#011rip=98.191.108.149#011lport=993#011rport=51902#011local_name=mail.keiththewebguy.com#011ssl_cipher=ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256#011ssl_cipher_bits=128#011ssl_pfs=KxECDHE#011ssl_protocol=TLSv1.2 Jul 5 18:58:35 soho dovecot: auth: Debug: client passdb out: CONT#0111#011 Jul 5 18:58:35 soho dovecot: auth: Debug: client in: CONT#0111#011AGtlaXRoQGtlaXRodGhld2ViZ3V5LmNvbQBJY2VjcmVhbS1Db25lXjIx (previous base64 data may contain sensitive data) Jul 5 18:58:35 soho dovecot: auth: Debug: passwd-file(keith@keiththewebguy.com,98.191.108.149,<wVJ55GTGvspiv2yV>): Performing passdb lookup Jul 5 18:58:35 soho dovecot: auth: Debug: passwd-file(keith@keiththewebguy.com,98.191.108.149,<wVJ55GTGvspiv2yV>): lookup: user=keith@keiththewebguy.com file=/etc/dovecot/dovecot-users Jul 5 18:58:35 soho dovecot: auth: passwd-file(keith@keiththewebguy.com,98.191.108.149,<wVJ55GTGvspiv2yV>): unknown user Jul 5 18:58:35 soho dovecot: auth: Debug: passwd-file(keith@keiththewebguy.com,98.191.108.149,<wVJ55GTGvspiv2yV>): Finished passdb lookup Jul 5 18:58:35 soho dovecot: auth: Debug: auth(keith@keiththewebguy.com,98.191.108.149,<wVJ55GTGvspiv2yV>): Auth request finished Jul 5 18:58:37 soho dovecot: auth: Debug: client passdb out: FAIL#0111#011user=keith@keiththewebguy.com Jul 5 18:58:37 soho dovecot: auth: Debug: client in: AUTH#0112#011LOGIN#011service=imap#011secured=tls#011session=wVJ55GTGvspiv2yV#011lip=192.168.1.10#011rip=98.191.108.149#011lport=993#011rport=51902#011local_name=mail.keiththewebguy.com#011ssl_cipher=ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256#011ssl_cipher_bits=128#011ssl_pfs=KxECDHE#011ssl_protocol=TLSv1.2 Jul 5 18:58:41 soho dovecot: auth: Debug: client passdb out: CONT#0112#011VXNlcm5hbWU6 Jul 5 18:58:41 soho dovecot: auth: Debug: client in: CONT#0112#011a2VpdGhAa2VpdGh0aGV3ZWJndXkuY29t (previous base64 data may contain sensitive data) Jul 5 18:58:41 soho dovecot: auth: Debug: client passdb out: CONT#0112#011UGFzc3dvcmQ6 Jul 5 18:58:41 soho dovecot: auth: Debug: client in: CONT#0112#011SWNlY3JlYW0tQ29uZV4yMQ== (previous base64 data may contain sensitive data) Jul 5 18:58:41 soho dovecot: auth: Debug: passwd-file(keith@keiththewebguy.com,98.191.108.149,<wVJ55GTGvspiv2yV>): Performing passdb lookup Jul 5 18:58:41 soho dovecot: auth: Debug: passwd-file(keith@keiththewebguy.com,98.191.108.149,<wVJ55GTGvspiv2yV>): lookup: user=keith@keiththewebguy.com file=/etc/dovecot/dovecot-users Jul 5 18:58:41 soho dovecot: auth: passwd-file(keith@keiththewebguy.com,98.191.108.149,<wVJ55GTGvspiv2yV>): unknown user Jul 5 18:58:41 soho dovecot: auth: Debug: passwd-file(keith@keiththewebguy.com,98.191.108.149,<wVJ55GTGvspiv2yV>): Finished passdb lookup Jul 5 18:58:41 soho dovecot: auth: Debug: auth(keith@keiththewebguy.com,98.191.108.149,<wVJ55GTGvspiv2yV>): Auth request finished Jul 5 18:58:43 soho dovecot: auth: Debug: client passdb out: FAIL#0112#011user=keith@keiththewebguy.com Jul 5 18:58:43 soho dovecot: auth: Debug: client in: AUTH#0113#011PLAIN#011service=imap#011secured=tls#011session=wVJ55GTGvspiv2yV#011lip=192.168.1.10#011rip=98.191.108.149#011lport=993#011rport=51902#011local_name=mail.keiththewebguy.com#011ssl_cipher=ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256#011ssl_cipher_bits=128#011ssl_pfs=KxECDHE#011ssl_protocol=TLSv1.2#011resp=AGtlaXRoQGtlaXRodGhld2ViZ3V5LmNvbQBJY2VjcmVhbS1Db25lXjIx (previous base64 data may contain sensitive data) Jul 5 18:58:47 soho dovecot: auth: Debug: passwd-file(keith@keiththewebguy.com,98.191.108.149,<wVJ55GTGvspiv2yV>): Performing passdb lookup Jul 5 18:58:47 soho dovecot: auth: Debug: passwd-file(keith@keiththewebguy.com,98.191.108.149,<wVJ55GTGvspiv2yV>): lookup: user=keith@keiththewebguy.com file=/etc/dovecot/dovecot-users Jul 5 18:58:47 soho dovecot: auth: passwd-file(keith@keiththewebguy.com,98.191.108.149,<wVJ55GTGvspiv2yV>): unknown user Jul 5 18:58:47 soho dovecot: auth: Debug: passwd-file(keith@keiththewebguy.com,98.191.108.149,<wVJ55GTGvspiv2yV>): Finished passdb lookup Jul 5 18:58:47 soho dovecot: auth: Debug: auth(keith@keiththewebguy.com,98.191.108.149,<wVJ55GTGvspiv2yV>): Auth request finished Jul 5 18:58:49 soho dovecot: auth: Debug: client passdb out: FAIL#0113#011user=keith@keiththewebguy.com Jul 5 18:58:49 soho dovecot: imap-login: Debug: SSL alert: close notify Jul 5 18:58:49 soho dovecot: imap-login: Disconnected (auth failed, 3 attempts in 14 secs): user=<keith@keiththewebguy.com>, method=PLAIN, rip=98.191.108.149, lip=192.168.1.10, TLS, session=<wVJ55GTGvspiv2yV> Jul 5 18:58:49 soho dovecot: imap-login: Debug: SSL alert: close notify
I see the following lines:
passwd-file /etc/dovecot/dovecot-users: Read 1 users in 0 secs
passwd-file(keith@keiththewebguy.com,98.191.108.149,<wVJ55GTGvspiv2yV>): Performing passdb lookup
passwd-file(keith@keiththewebguy.com,98.191.108.149,<wVJ55GTGvspiv2yV>): lookup: user=keith@keiththewebguy.com file=/etc/dovecot/dovecot-users
file(keith@keiththewebguy.com,98.191.108.149,<wVJ55GTGvspiv2yV>): unknown user
passwd-file(keith@keiththewebguy.com,98.191.108.149,<wVJ55GTGvspiv2yV>): Finished passdb lookup
auth(keith@keiththewebguy.com,98.191.108.149,<wVJ55GTGvspiv2yV>): Auth request finished
client passdb out: FAIL#0111#011user=keith@keiththewebguy.com
dovecot -n :
# 2.3.7.2 (3c910f64b): /etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf # Pigeonhole version 0.5.7.2 () # OS: Linux 5.4.0-77-generic x86_64 Ubuntu 20.04.2 LTS ext4 # Hostname: soho.keiththewebguy.com auth_debug = yes auth_debug_passwords = yes auth_mechanisms = plain login auth_verbose = yes mail_debug = yes mail_location = maildir:/var/mail/vhosts/%d/%n mail_privileged_group = mail 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 = scheme=PLAIN username_format=%u /etc/dovecot/dovecot-users driver = passwd-file } protocols = " imap lmtp pop3" service auth { unix_listener /var/spool/postfix/private/auth { group = postfix mode = 0666 user = postfix } } service imap-login { inet_listener imaps { port = 993 ssl = yes } } service lmtp { unix_listener /var/spool/postfix/private/dovecot-lmtp { group = postfix mode = 0600 user = postfix } } ssl = required ssl_cert = </etc/letsencrypt/live/keiththewebguy.com/fullchain.pem ssl_client_ca_dir = /etc/ssl/certs ssl_dh = # hidden, use -P to show it ssl_key = # hidden, use -P to show it userdb { args = uid=vmail gid=vmail home=/var/mail/vhosts/%d/%n driver = static } verbose_ssl = yes
Any thoughts are most welcome!! Thanks in advance!!