Initialization Failed:

30 Oct 2015

      Hi dovecotters
I am trying to install dovecot on a mail server I am provisioning for
myself in AWS.
I am following an ArsTechnica guide, and at some stage in the process
the author recommends and provides instructions to configure Dovecot
(http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/03/taking-e-mail-back-par...)
So, now I have it installed and configured (I believe the way suggested)
but when I try to connect via IMAP I am getting an error.
If I try :
root@ip-10-0-0-244:~# telnet mail.myactualdomain.com 143
Trying 127.0.0.1...
Connected to mail.myactualdomain.com.
Escape character is '^]'.

OK [CAPABILITY IMAP4rev1 LITERAL+ SASL-IR LOGIN-REFERRALS ID ENABLE
IDLE STARTTLS AUTH=PLAIN AUTH=LOGIN] Dovecot (Ubuntu) ready.
a1 LOGIN brian@myactualdomain.com plaintextpassword
BYE Internal error occurred. Refer to server log for more information.
Connection closed by foreign host.
root@ip-10-0-0-244:~#

If I go to /var/log/syslog I can see the following lines:
Oct 31 05:31:06 ip-10-0-0-244 dovecot: imap-login: Login:
user=brian@myactualdomain.com, method=PLAIN, rip=127.0.0.1,
lip=127.0.0.1, mpid=16934, secured, session=
Oct 31 05:31:06 ip-10-0-0-244 dovecot: imap(brian@myactualdomain.com):
Error: user brian@myactualdomain.com: Initialization failed: Namespace
'': Unknown setting: /var/mail/vmail/myactualdomain.com/brian/mail
Oct 31 05:31:06 ip-10-0-0-244 dovecot: imap(brian@myactualdomain.com):
Error: Invalid user settings. Refer to server log for more information.
root@ip-10-0-0-244:~# dovecot --version
2.2.9
So, I don't know why it's giving me an error about :
Initialization failed: Namespace '': Unknown setting:
/var/mail/vmail/myactualdomain.com/brian/mail
The location is there, with the permissions with I believe the correct
permissions.
I'm a bit stuck as to where to even go from here.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Kind Regards
Brian
root@ip-10-0-0-244:~# dovecot -n
# 2.2.9: /etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf
# OS: Linux 3.13.0-48-generic x86_64 Ubuntu 14.04.2 LTS
auth_mechanisms = plain login
auth_verbose = yes
mail_home = /var/mail/vmail/%d/%n
mail_location = maildir:~/Maildir:/var/mail/vmail/%d/%n/mail:LAYOUT=fs
managesieve_notify_capability = mailto
managesieve_sieve_capability = fileinto reject envelope
encoded-character vacation subaddress comparator-i;ascii-numeric
relational regex imap4flags copy include variables body enotify
environment mailbox date ihave
namespace inbox {
inbox = yes
location =
mailbox Drafts {
auto = subscribe
special_use = \Drafts
}
mailbox Junk {
auto = subscribe
special_use = \Junk
}
mailbox Sent {
auto = subscribe
special_use = \Sent
}
mailbox Trash {
auto = subscribe
special_use = \Trash
}
prefix =
}
passdb {
args = username_format=%u scheme=ssha512 /etc/dovecot/passwd.db
driver = passwd-file
}
plugin {
sieve = ~/.dovecot.sieve
sieve_after = /var/mail/vmail/sieve-after
sieve_before = /var/mail/vmail/sieve-before
sieve_dir = ~/sieve
}
protocols = imap sieve
service auth {
unix_listener /var/spool/postfix/private/dovecot-auth {
group = postfix
mode = 0660
user = postfix
}
}
ssl_cert =  was automatically rejected:%n%r
}
protocol imap {
imap_client_workarounds = delay-newmail tb-extra-mailbox-sep
mail_max_userip_connections = 10
}