[Dovecot] moving 1.2.13 system to another hard drive
Hi,
I am not very experienced with Dovecot (1,2,13) installed on Debian sid.
I have just set up a new system on a new hard drive on the same computer. fetchmail is correctly putting mail in /var/mail/<username>. I have copied my entire Maildir directory from the old hard drive. I have made what changes I understood to dovecot.conf.
Dovecot was working on the other drive even though I'm not completely sure how I got it working before.
Any ideas for debugging this certainly simple problem for some of you.
TIA,
Paul Scott
On 9/17/2010 8:15 PM, Paul Scott wrote:
Dovecot was working on the other drive even though I'm not completely sure how I got it working before.
So... you got it working before 'somehow', but you're not sure how, and then...
Any ideas for debugging this certainly simple problem for some of you.
you ask for help without even giving specifics on what exactly isn't working - like error messages, log snippets exhibiting errors, doveonc -n output showing your configs from both systems, etc?
Interesting... you think we are a bunch of sages and seers in here? ;)
On 18/09/2010 01:15, Paul Scott wrote:
I have just set up a new system on a new hard drive on the same computer. fetchmail is correctly putting mail in /var/mail/<username>.
Whilst I am no expert on fetchmail, as far as I know fetchmail does not deliver mail itself but rather passes it on to an MTA. So I think it may be your MTA that is delivering mail to mbox files in /var/mail.
I have copied my entire Maildir directory from the old hard drive. I have made what changes I understood to dovecot.conf.
Dovecot was working on the other drive even though I'm not completely sure how I got it working before.
How about looking at the old Dovecot configuration under /etc on the old drive?
Having said that, having mail delivered to mbox files under /var/mail, but other folders under Maildir might not be the best configuration:
to get Dovecot to be able to handle that setup means having two different mailbox formats which means a namespace configuration,
your INBOX is going to an mbox under /var/mail, which is fraught with potential locking problems (unless this has somehow magically been taken care of for you).
You may be better off getting all mail delivered straight to Maildir, thereby making everything Maildir.
This would then make your Dovecot configuration simpler, and also remove the potential locking problems of using mbox.
Any ideas for debugging this certainly simple problem for some of you.
Please try to describe a specific symptom or specific symptoms you are experiencing.
Please provide the output of "dovecot -n".
It might also be an idea to say what MTA you are using.
For The Avoidance Of Doubt, I am not 'taking on your case', but merely providing one step of suggestions. Please reply to the list (i.e. not to me).
Bill
On Sat, Sep 18, 2010 at 04:52:31PM +0100, William Blunn wrote:
On 18/09/2010 01:15, Paul Scott wrote:
I have just set up a new system on a new hard drive on the same computer. fetchmail is correctly putting mail in /var/mail/<username>.
Whilst I am no expert on fetchmail, as far as I know fetchmail does not deliver mail itself but rather passes it on to an MTA. So I think it may be your MTA that is delivering mail to mbox files in /var/mail.
Thanks for that reminder.
I have copied my entire Maildir directory from the old hard drive. I have made what changes I understood to dovecot.conf.
Dovecot was working on the other drive even though I'm not completely sure how I got it working before.
How about looking at the old Dovecot configuration under /etc on the old drive?
I have done that several times.
Having said that, having mail delivered to mbox files under /var/mail, but other folders under Maildir might not be the best configuration:
to get Dovecot to be able to handle that setup means having two different mailbox formats which means a namespace configuration,
your INBOX is going to an mbox under /var/mail, which is fraught with potential locking problems (unless this has somehow magically been taken care of for you).
You may be better off getting all mail delivered straight to Maildir, thereby making everything Maildir.
That's what I thought was happening since it was happening on the previous setup. OTOH mutt sees the old INBOX but doesn't see the other folders anymore.
This would then make your Dovecot configuration simpler, and also remove the potential locking problems of using mbox.
I don't know how to do that. Everything was under Maildir in the previous system and I don't know why it doesn't seem to be now.
Any ideas for debugging this certainly simple problem for some of you.
Please try to describe a specific symptom or specific symptoms you are experiencing.
Dovecot doesn't seem to be putting mail in the Maildir INBOX. Now I see log messages which may make things much clearer. It may be about passwords which are the same on the new system as the old.
Sep 18 09:55:31 bliss dovecot: imap-login: Disconnected (auth failed, 4 attempts): user=<paul>, method=PLAIN, rip=68.0.135.186, lip=192.168.1.102
Please provide the output of "dovecot -n".
paul@bliss:~$ sudo dovecot -n
1.2.13: /etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf
OS: Linux 2.6.32-5-686 i686 Debian squeeze/sid
log_timestamp: %Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S ssl: no disable_plaintext_auth: no login_dir: /var/run/dovecot/login login_executable: /usr/lib/dovecot/imap-login mail_privileged_group: mail mail_location: maildir:~/Maildir mbox_write_locks: fcntl dotlock auth default: passdb: driver: pam userdb: driver: passwd
It might also be an idea to say what MTA you are using.
AFAIK: exim4
For The Avoidance Of Doubt, I am not 'taking on your case', but merely providing one step of suggestions.
This was very helpful. I still not sure exactly the password problem is but that probably narrows it down for now.
Please reply to the list (i.e. not to me).
Certainly,
Many thanks,
Paul
On 18/09/2010 18:06, Paul Scott wrote:
Having said that, having mail delivered to mbox files under /var/mail, but other folders under Maildir might not be the best configuration:
to get Dovecot to be able to handle that setup means having two different mailbox formats which means a namespace configuration,
your INBOX is going to an mbox under /var/mail, which is fraught with potential locking problems (unless this has somehow magically been taken care of for you).
You may be better off getting all mail delivered straight to Maildir, thereby making everything Maildir.
That's what I thought was happening since it was happening on the previous setup. OTOH mutt sees the old INBOX but doesn't see the other folders anymore.
I am not an expert on mutt but I believe mutt needs to be specifically configured to see mail under Maildir.
This would then make your Dovecot configuration simpler, and also remove the potential locking problems of using mbox.
I don't know how to do that. Everything was under Maildir in the previous system and I don't know why it doesn't seem to be now.
To have mail under Maildir, you need to define a local policy that says that mail should be stored this way. By "define a local policy", I mean something like "sit down and decide to do it in a particular way".
Configurations of various softwares (MTA, IMAP software etc.) should then be made to reflect that policy.
For best practice, you should then run tests to make sure that your various softwares are behaving according to the policy you defined before.
Any ideas for debugging this certainly simple problem for some of you.
Please try to describe a specific symptom or specific symptoms you are experiencing.
Dovecot doesn't seem to be putting mail in the Maildir INBOX.
Which "putting mail" scenario are you thinking of?
Where a message is saved into a folder via IMAP
Where a message is delivered into a Dovecot-managed mailstore by the Dovecot LDA or Dovecot LMTP
If you have not configured your MTA to use Dovecot as its LDA then Dovecot won't be responsible for mail delivery, and so mail won't be delivered according to the Dovecot configuration. The likely default would be for the MTA to deliver mail itself, in which case mail will be delivered according to the MTA's configuration.
Now I see log messages which may make things much clearer. It may be about passwords which are the same on the new system as the old.
Sep 18 09:55:31 bliss dovecot: imap-login: Disconnected (auth failed, 4 attempts): user=<paul>, method=PLAIN, rip=68.0.135.186, lip=192.168.1.102
Authentication doesn't seem to be working. This is almost certainly fixable. But I think you need to get a broad grasp of how you want mail to be stored on your system and how you can achieve that before getting into this fine detail.
Please provide the output of "dovecot -n".
paul@bliss:~$ sudo dovecot -n
1.2.13: /etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf
OS: Linux 2.6.32-5-686 i686 Debian squeeze/sid
log_timestamp: %Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S ssl: no disable_plaintext_auth: no login_dir: /var/run/dovecot/login login_executable: /usr/lib/dovecot/imap-login mail_privileged_group: mail mail_location: maildir:~/Maildir mbox_write_locks: fcntl dotlock auth default: passdb: driver: pam userdb: driver: passwd
It might also be an idea to say what MTA you are using.
AFAIK: exim4
Good.
You can configure Exim 4 to deliver mail to Maildir under ~/Maildir --- it is all documented in the Exim 4 docs.
Alternatively you can configure Exim 4 to deliver mail using Dovecot. This is documented in the Dovecot wiki.
Bill
participants (3)
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Charles Marcus
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Paul Scott
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William Blunn