I having a hard time working this out, I've looked in the wiki and various other places but am still cueless (stupid me)

mercury:/etc/dovecot# imtest -a graeme 203.96.154.204 S: * OK dovecot ready. C: C01 CAPABILITY S: * CAPABILITY IMAP4rev1 SORT THREAD=REFERENCES MULTIAPPEND UNSELECT LITERAL+ IDLE CHILDREN LISTEXT LIST-SUBSCRIBED NAMESPACE STARTTLS AUTH=PLAIN S: C01 OK Capability completed. Authentication failed. no mechanism available Security strength factor: 0 mercury:/etc/dovecot#

Below is my configuration file for version 0.99-14.1 on a Debian Sarge box I'm quite happy with plaintext auth for now. Any help or suggestions much appreciated.

Graeme

## Dovecot 1.0 configuration file

# Default values are shown after each value, it's not required to uncomment # any of the lines. Exception to this are paths, they're just examples # with real defaults being based on configure options. The paths listed here # are for configure --prefix=/usr --sysconfdir=/etc/dovecot # --localstatedir=/var --with-ssldir=/etc/ssl

# Base directory where to store runtime data. #base_dir = /var/run/dovecot/

# Protocols we want to be serving: # imap imaps pop3 pop3s protocols = imap

# IP or host address where to listen in for connections. It's not currently # possible to specify multiple addresses. "*" listens in all IPv4 interfaces. # "[::]" listens in all IPv6 interfaces, but may also listen in all IPv4 # interfaces depending on the operating system. You can specify ports with # "host:port". #imap_listen = * #pop3_listen = *

# IP or host address where to listen in for SSL connections. Defaults # to above non-SSL equilevants if not specified. #imaps_listen = #pop3s_listen =

# Disable SSL/TLS support. #ssl_disable = no

# PEM encoded X.509 SSL/TLS certificate and private key. They're opened before # dropping root privileges, so keep the key file unreadable by anyone but # root. #ssl_cert_file = /etc/ssl/certs/dovecot.pem #ssl_key_file = /etc/ssl/private/dovecot.pem

# SSL parameter file. Master process generates this file for login processes. # It contains Diffie Hellman and RSA parameters. #ssl_parameters_file = /var/run/dovecot/ssl-parameters.dat

# How often to regenerate the SSL parameters file. Generation is quite CPU # intensive operation. The value is in hours, 0 disables regeneration # entirely. #ssl_parameters_regenerate = 24

# Disable LOGIN command and all other plaintext authentications unless # SSL/TLS is used (LOGINDISABLED capability). Note that 127.*.*.* and # IPv6 ::1 addresses are considered secure, this setting has no effect if # you connect from those addresses. disable_plaintext_auth = no

# Use this logfile instead of syslog(). /dev/stderr can be used if you want to # use stderr for logging (ONLY /dev/stderr - otherwise it is closed). #log_path =

# For informational messages, use this logfile instead of the default #info_log_path =

# Prefix for each line written to log file. % codes are in strftime(3) # format. #log_timestamp = "%b %d %H:%M:%S "

## ## Login processes ##

# Directory where authentication process places authentication UNIX sockets # which login needs to be able to connect to. The sockets are created when # running as root, so you don't have to worry about permissions. Note that # everything in this directory is deleted when Dovecot is started. #login_dir = /var/run/dovecot/login

# chroot login process to the login_dir. Only reason not to do this is if you # wish to run the whole Dovecot without roots. # http://wiki.dovecot.org/Rootless #login_chroot = yes

## ## IMAP login process ##

login = imap

# Executable location. login_executable = /usr/lib/dovecot/imap-login

# User to use for the login process. Create a completely new user for this, # and don't use it anywhere else. The user must also belong to a group where # only it has access, it's used to control access for authentication process. # Note that this user is NOT used to access mails. # http://wiki.dovecot.org/UserIds #login_user = dovecot

# Set max. process size in megabytes. If you don't use # login_process_per_connection you might need to grow this. #login_process_size = 32

# Should each login be processed in it's own process (yes), or should one # login process be allowed to process multiple connections (no)? Yes is more # secure, espcially with SSL/TLS enabled. No is faster since there's no need # to create processes all the time. #login_process_per_connection = yes

# Number of login processes to create. If login_process_per_user is # yes, this is the number of extra processes waiting for users to log in. #login_processes_count = 3

# Maximum number of extra login processes to create. The extra process count # usually stays at login_processes_count, but when multiple users start logging # in at the same time more extra processes are created. To prevent fork-bombing # we check only once in a second if new processes should be created - if all # of them are used at the time, we double their amount until limit set by this # setting is reached. This setting is used only if login_process_per_use is yes. #login_max_processes_count = 128

# Maximum number of connections allowed in login state. When this limit is # reached, the oldest connections are dropped. If login_process_per_user # is no, this is a per-process value, so the absolute maximum number of users # logging in actually login_processes_count * max_logging_users. #login_max_logging_users = 256

## ## POP3 login process ##

# Settings default to same as above, so you don't have to set anything # unless you want to override them.

login = pop3

# Exception to above rule being the executable location. #login_executable = /usr/lib/dovecot/pop3-login

## ## Mail processes ##

# Maximum number of running mail processes. When this limit is reached, # new users aren't allowed to log in. #max_mail_processes = 1024

# Show more verbose process titles (in ps). Currently shows user name and # IP address. Useful for seeing who are actually using the IMAP processes # (eg. shared mailboxes or if same uid is used for multiple accounts). #verbose_proctitle = no

# Show protocol level SSL errors. #verbose_ssl = no

# Valid UID range for users, defaults to 500 and above. This is mostly # to make sure that users can't log in as daemons or other system users. # Note that denying root logins is hardcoded to dovecot binary and can't # be done even if first_valid_uid is set to 0. #first_valid_uid = 500 #last_valid_uid = 0

# Valid GID range for users, defaults to non-root/wheel. Users having # non-valid GID as primary group ID aren't allowed to log in. If user # belongs to supplementary groups with non-valid GIDs, those groups are # not set. #first_valid_gid = 1 #last_valid_gid = 0

# Grant access to these extra groups for mail processes. Typical use would be # to give "mail" group write access to /var/mail to be able to create dotlocks. mail_extra_groups = mail

# ':' separated list of directories under which chrooting is allowed for mail # processes (ie. /var/mail will allow chrooting to /var/mail/foo/bar too). # This setting doesn't affect login_chroot or auth_chroot variables. # WARNING: Never add directories here which local users can modify, that # may lead to root exploit. Usually this should be done only if you don't # allow shell access for users. See # /usr/share/doc/dovecot-common/configuration.txt for more information. #valid_chroot_dirs =

# Default chroot directory for mail processes. This can be overridden by # giving /./ in user's home directory (eg. /home/./user chroots into /home). #mail_chroot =

# Default MAIL environment to use when it's not set. By leaving this empty # dovecot tries to do some automatic detection as described in # /usr/share/doc/dovecot-common/mail-storages.txt. There's a few special # variables you can use: # # %u - username # %n - user part in user@domain, same as %u if there's no domain # %d - domain part in user@domain, empty if user there's no domain # %h - home directory # # You can also limit a width of string by giving the number of max. characters # after the '%' character. For example %1u gives the first character of # username. Some examples: # # default_mail_env = maildir:/var/mail/%1u/%u/Maildir # default_mail_env = mbox:~/mail/:INBOX=/var/mail/%u # default_mail_env = mbox:/var/mail/%d/%n/:INDEX=/var/indexes/%d/%n # #default_mail_env =

# Space-separated list of fields to cache for all mails. Currently these # fields are allowed followed by a list of commands they speed up: # # Envelope - FETCH ENVELOPE and SEARCH FROM, TO, CC, BCC, SUBJECT, # SENTBEFORE, SENTON, SENTSINCE, HEADER MESSAGE-ID, # HEADER IN-REPLY-TO # Body - FETCH BODY # Bodystructure - FETCH BODY, BODYSTRUCTURE # MessagePart - FETCH BODY[1.2.3] (ie. body parts), RFC822.SIZE, # SEARCH SMALLER, LARGER, also speeds up BODY/BODYSTRUCTURE # generation. This is always set with mbox mailboxes, and # also default with Maildir. # # Different IMAP clients work in different ways, that's why Dovecot by default # only caches MessagePart which speeds up most operations. Whenever client # does something where caching could be used, the field is automatically marked # to be cached later. For example after FETCH BODY the BODY will be cached # for all new messages. Normally you should leave this alone, unless you know # what most of your IMAP clients are. Caching more fields than needed makes # the index files larger and generate useless I/O. # # With maildir there's one extra optimization - if nothing is cached, indexing # the maildir becomes much faster since it's not opening any of the mail files. # This could be useful if your IMAP clients access only new mails.

#mail_cache_fields = MessagePart

# Space-separated list of fields that Dovecot should never set to be cached. # Useful if you want to save disk space at the cost of more I/O when the fields # needed. #mail_never_cache_fields =

# Workarounds for various client bugs: # oe6-fetch-no-newmail: # Never send EXISTS/RECENT when replying to FETCH command. Outlook Express # seems to think they are FETCH replies and gives user "Message no longer # in server" error. Note that OE6 still breaks even with this workaround # if synchronization is set to "Headers Only". # outlook-idle: # Outlook and Outlook Express never abort IDLE command, so if no mail # arrives in half a hour, Dovecot closes the connection. This is still # fine, except Outlook doesn't connect back so you don't see if new mail # arrives. # outlook-pop3-no-nuls: # Outlook and Outlook Express hang if mails contain NUL characters. # This setting replaces them with 0x80 character. #client_workarounds =

# Dovecot can notify client of new mail in selected mailbox soon after it's # received. This setting specifies the minimum interval in seconds between # new mail notifications to client - internally they may be checked more or # less often. Setting this to 0 disables the checking. # NOTE: Evolution client breaks with this option when it's trying to APPEND. #mailbox_check_interval = 0

# Like mailbox_check_interval, but used for IDLE command. #mailbox_idle_check_interval = 30

# Allow full filesystem access to clients. There's no access checks other than # what the operating system does for the active UID/GID. It works with both # maildir and mboxes, allowing you to prefix mailboxes names with eg. /path/ # or ~user/. #mail_full_filesystem_access = no

# Maximum allowed length for custom flag name. It's only forced when trying # to create new flags. #mail_max_flag_length = 50

# Save mails with CR+LF instead of plain LF. This makes sending those mails # take less CPU, especially with sendfile() syscall with Linux and FreeBSD. # But it also creates a bit more disk I/O which may just make it slower. #mail_save_crlf = no

# Use mmap() instead of read() to read mail files. read() seems to be a bit # faster with my Linux/x86 and it's better with NFS, so that's the default. #mail_read_mmaped = no

# By default LIST command returns all entries in maildir beginning with dot. # Enabling this option makes Dovecot return only entries which are directories. # This is done by stat()ing each entry, so it causes more disk I/O. # (For systems setting struct dirent->d_type, this check is free and it's # done always regardless of this setting) #maildir_stat_dirs = no

# Copy mail to another folders using hard links. This is much faster than # actually copying the file. This is problematic only if something modifies # the mail in one folder but doesn't want it modified in the others. I don't # know any MUA which would modify mail files directly. IMAP protocol also # requires that the mails don't change, so it would be problematic in any case. # If you care about performance, enable it. #maildir_copy_with_hardlinks = no

# Check if mails' content has been changed by external programs. This slows # down things as extra stat() needs to be called for each file. If changes are # noticed, the message is treated as a new message, since IMAP protocol # specifies that existing messages are immutable. #maildir_check_content_changes = no

# Which locking methods to use for locking mbox. There's three available: # dotlock: Create <mailbox>.lock file. This is the oldest and most NFS-safe # solution. If you want to use /var/mail/ like directory, the users # will need write access to that directory. # fcntl : Use this if possible. Works with NFS too if lockd is used. # flock : May not exist in all systems. Doesn't work with NFS. # # You can use both fcntl and flock too; if you do the order they're declared # with is important to avoid deadlocks if other MTAs/MUAs are using both fcntl # and flock. Some operating systems don't allow using both of them # simultaneously, eg. BSDs. If dotlock is used, it's always created first. #mbox_locks = dotlock fcntl

# Should we create dotlock file even when we want only a read-lock? Setting # this to yes hurts the performance when the mailbox is accessed simultaneously # by multiple processes, but it's needed for reliable reading if no other # locking methods are available. #mbox_read_dotlock = no

# Maximum time in seconds to wait for lock (all of them) before aborting. #mbox_lock_timeout = 300

# If dotlock exists but the mailbox isn't modified in any way, override the # lock file after this many seconds. #mbox_dotlock_change_timeout = 30

# umask to use for mail files and directories #umask = 0077

# Drop all privileges before exec()ing the mail process. This is mostly # meant for debugging, otherwise you don't get core dumps. Note that setting # this to yes means that log file is opened as the logged in user, which # might not work. It could also be a small security risk if you use single UID # for multiple users, as the users could ptrace() each others processes then. #mail_drop_priv_before_exec = no

## ## IMAP process ##

# Executable location imap_executable = /usr/lib/dovecot/imap

# Set max. process size in megabytes. Most of the memory goes to mmap()ing # files, so it shouldn't harm much even if this limit is set pretty high. #imap_process_size = 256

# Support for dynamically loadable modules. #imap_use_modules = no imap_modules = /usr/lib/dovecot/imap

## ## POP3 process ##

# Executable location #pop3_executable = /usr/lib/dovecot/pop3

# Set max. process size in megabytes. Most of the memory goes to mmap()ing # files, so it shouldn't harm much even if this limit is set pretty high. #pop3_process_size = 256

# Support for dynamically loadable modules. #pop3_use_modules = no #pop3_modules = /usr/lib/dovecot/pop3

## ## Authentication processes ##

# An Authentication process is a child process used by Dovecot that # handles the authentication steps. The steps cover an authentication # mechanism (auth_mechanisms, how the client authenticates in the IMAP or # POP3 protocol), which password database should be queried (auth_passdb), # and which user database should be queried (auth_userdb, to obtain # UID, GID, and location of the user's mailbox/home directory). # # You can have multiple processes, though a typical configuration will # have only one. Each time "auth = xx" is seen, a new process # definition is started. The point of multiple processes is to be able # to set stricter permissions. (See auth_user below.) # # Just remember that only one Authentication process is asked for the # password, so you can't have different passwords accessible through # different process definitions (unless they have different # auth_mechanisms, and you're ok with having different password for # each mechanisms).

# Authentication process name. auth = default

# Specifies how the client authenticates in the IMAP protocol. # Space separated list of permitted authentication mechanisms: # anonymous plain digest-md5 cram-md5 # # anonymous - No authentication required. # plain - The password is sent as plain text. All IMAP/POP3 clients # support this, and the password can be encrypted by Dovecot to match # any of the encryption schemes used in password databases. # digest-md5 and cram-md5 - both encrypt the password so it is more # secure in transit, but are not well supported by clients, and # require that the password database use a matching encryption # scheme (or be in plaintext). # # See auth.txt for more details. # # If you are using SSL there is less benefit to digest-md5 and # cram-md5 as the communication is already encrypted. auth_mechanisms = plain

# Space separated list of realms for SASL authentication mechanisms that need # them. You can leave it empty if you don't want to support multiple realms. # Many clients simply use the first one listed here, so keep the default realm # first. #auth_realms =

# Default realm/domain to use if none was specified. This is used for both # SASL realms and appending @domain to username in plaintext logins. #auth_default_realm =

# User database specifies where mails are located and what user/group IDs # own them. For single-UID configuration use "static". # http://wiki.dovecot.org/Authentication # http://wiki.dovecot.org/VirtualUsers # passwd: /etc/passwd or similiar, using getpwnam() # passwd-file <path>: passwd-like file with specified location # static uid=<uid> gid=<gid> home=<dir template>: static settings # vpopmail: vpopmail library # ldap <config path>: LDAP, see /etc/dovecot/dovecot-ldap.conf # mysql <config path>: a MySQL database, see /etc/dovecot/dovecot-mysql.conf # pgsql <config path>: a PostgreSQL database, see # /etc/dovecot/dovecot-pgsql.conf auth_userdb = passwd

# Password database specifies only the passwords for users. # http://wiki.dovecot.org/Authentication # passwd: /etc/passwd or similiar, using getpwnam() # shadow: /etc/shadow or similiar, using getspnam() # pam [<service> | *]: PAM authentication # passwd-file <path>: passwd-like file with specified location # vpopmail: vpopmail authentication # ldap <config path>: LDAP, see /etc/dovecot/dovecot-ldap.conf # mysql <config path>: a MySQL database, see
/etc/dovecot/dovecot-mysql.conf # pgsql <config path>: a PostgreSQL database, see # /etc/dovecot/dovecot-pgsql.conf auth_passdb = passwd

#auth_executable = /usr/lib/dovecot/dovecot-auth

# Set max. process size in megabytes. #auth_process_size = 256

# User to use for the process. This user needs access to only user and # password databases, nothing else. Only shadow and pam authentication # requires roots, so use something else if possible. Note that passwd # authentication with BSDs internally accesses shadow files, which also # requires roots. Note that this user is NOT used to access mails. # That user is specified by auth_userdb above. auth_user = root

# Directory where to chroot the process. Most authentication backends don't # work if this is set, and there's no point chrooting if auth_user is root. #auth_chroot =

# Number of authentication processes to create #auth_count = 1

# List of allowed characters in username. If the user-given username contains # a character not listed in here, the login automatically fails. This is just # an extra check to make sure user can't exploit any potential quote escaping # vulnerabilities with SQL/LDAP databases. If you want to allow all characters, # set this value to empty. #auth_username_chars = abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ01234567890.-_@

# Username to use for users logging in with ANONYMOUS SASL mechanism #auth_anonymous_username = anonymous

# More verbose logging. Useful for figuring out why authentication isn't # working. auth_verbose = yes

# Even more verbose logging for debugging purposes. Shows for example SQL # queries. #auth_debug = no

# digest-md5 authentication process. It requires special MD5 passwords which # /etc/shadow and PAM doesn't support, so we never need roots to handle it. # Note that the passwd-file is opened before chrooting and dropping root # privileges, so it may be 0600-root owned file.

#auth = digest_md5 #auth_mechanisms = digest-md5 #auth_realms = #auth_userdb = passwd-file /etc/passwd.imap #auth_passdb = passwd-file /etc/passwd.imap #auth_user = imapauth #auth_chroot =

# if you plan to use only passwd-file, you don't need the two auth processes, # simply set "auth_methods = plain digest-md5"