If this message again appear as new message - my apologies, but then a bit more info on "how to reply on the mailing list" would be appreciated.

The problem with the version number is solved. Solution:

1. # rpm -e dovecot
2. Remove manually all files and directories called dovecot or something with dovecot in the name
3. Download http://www.dovecot.org/releases/1.2/dovecot-1.0.7.tar.gz
4. # tar -zxvf dovecot-1.0.7.tar.gz
5. # ./configure
6. # make
7. # make install
8. yum install -y dovecot

Now I am running 1.0.7.

I placed my dovecot.conf back in /etc.

dovecot -n result:

# 1.0.7: /etc/dovecot.conf base_dir: /var/run/dovecot/ log_path: /var/log/dovecot info_log_path: /var/log/dovecot protocols: pop3 pop3s imap imaps ssl_disable: yes login_dir: /var/run/dovecot/login login_executable(default): /usr/libexec/dovecot/imap login_executable(imap): /usr/libexec/dovecot/imap login_executable(pop3): /usr/libexec/dovecot/pop3-login login_greeting: Havecom Mailserver ready. login_process_size: 64 valid_chroot_dirs: /var/mail/vhosts mail_location: maildir:/var/mail/vhosts/%d/%n/ mail_executable(default): /usr/local/libexec/dovecot/imap mail_executable(imap): /usr/local/libexec/dovecot/imap mail_executable(pop3): /usr/libexec/dovecot/pop3 mail_plugin_dir(default): /usr/lib/dovecot/imap mail_plugin_dir(imap): /usr/lib/dovecot/imap mail_plugin_dir(pop3): /usr/local/lib/dovecot/pop3 imap_client_workarounds(default): delay-newmail outlook-idle netscape-eoh imap_client_workarounds(imap): delay-newmail outlook-idle netscape-eoh imap_client_workarounds(pop3): outlook-idle pop3_uidl_format(default): pop3_uidl_format(imap): pop3_uidl_format(pop3): %08Xu%08Xv pop3_client_workarounds(default): pop3_client_workarounds(imap): pop3_client_workarounds(pop3): outlook-no-nuls oe-ns-eoh auth default: executable: /usr/libexec/dovecot/dovecot-auth username_translation: "/$ verbose: yes passdb: driver: passwd-file args: /etc/dovecot/passwd userdb: driver: passwd-file args: /etc/dovecot/userdb socket: type: listen client: path: /var/spool/postfix/private/auth mode: 432 user: postfix group: postfix

my dovecot.conf:

ssl_disable = yes base_dir = /var/run/dovecot/ protocols = pop3 pop3s imap imaps log_path = /var/log/dovecot info_log_path = /var/log/dovecot login_dir = /var/run/dovecot/login login_chroot = yes valid_chroot_dirs = /var/mail/vhosts #login = imap login_user = dovecot login_process_size = 64 login_processes_count = 3 login_max_processes_count = 128 login_max_connections = 256 login_greeting = Havecom Mailserver ready.

mail_location = maildir:/var/mail/vhosts/%d/%n/

protocol imap { login_executable = /usr/libexec/dovecot/imap imap_max_line_length = 65536 mail_plugin_dir = /usr/lib/dovecot/imap imap_client_workarounds = delay-newmail outlook-idle netscape-eoh }

protocol pop3 { login_executable = /usr/libexec/dovecot/pop3-login mail_executable = /usr/libexec/dovecot/pop3 pop3_no_flag_updates = no pop3_enable_last = no pop3_reuse_xuidl = no pop3_lock_session = no pop3_uidl_format = %08Xu%08Xv pop3_logout_format = top=%t/%p, retr=%r/%b, del=%d/%m, size=%s pop3_client_workarounds = outlook-no-nuls oe-ns-eoh }

auth_executable = /usr/libexec/dovecot/dovecot-auth auth_process_size = 256 auth_cache_size = 0 auth_cache_ttl = 3600 auth_username_chars = abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ01234567890.-_@ auth_username_translation = "/$ auth_verbose = yes auth default { socket listen { client { path = /var/spool/postfix/private/auth mode = 0660 user = postfix group = postfix } } mechanisms = plain passdb passwd-file { args = /etc/dovecot/passwd }

userdb passwd-file { args = /etc/dovecot/userdb } user = root }

And this is my log:

dovecot: Jul 25 01:59:55 Info: Dovecot v1.0.7 starting up dovecot: Jul 25 01:59:56 Error: Temporary failure in creating login processes, slowing down for now dovecot: Jul 25 01:59:56 Error: imap-login: USER environment missing dovecot: Jul 25 01:59:56 Error: imap-login: USER environment missing dovecot: Jul 25 01:59:56 Error: imap-login: USER environment missing dovecot: Jul 25 01:59:56 Error: child 19309 (login) returned error 89 dovecot: Jul 25 01:59:56 Error: child 19310 (login) returned error 89 dovecot: Jul 25 01:59:56 Error: child 19311 (login) returned error 89 dovecot: Jul 25 01:59:56 Info: Created login processes successfully, unstalling dovecot: Jul 25 01:59:57 Error: Temporary failure in creating login processes, slowing down for now dovecot: Jul 25 01:59:57 Error: imap-login: USER environment missing dovecot: Jul 25 01:59:57 Error: imap-login: USER environment missing dovecot: Jul 25 01:59:57 Error: child 19312 (login) returned error 89 dovecot: Jul 25 01:59:57 Error: child 19313 (login) returned error 89 dovecot: Jul 25 01:59:57 Error: imap-login: USER environment missing dovecot: Jul 25 01:59:57 Error: child 19314 (login) returned error 89 dovecot: Jul 25 02:00:26 Info: pop3-login: Login: user=<user@mydomain.tld>, method=PLAIN, rip=::ffff:127.0.0.1, lip=::ffff:127.0.0.1, secured dovecot: Jul 25 02:00:26 Error: POP3(user@mydomain.tld): file_dotlock_open() failed with file /var/mail/vhosts/mydomain.tld/user/dovecot.index.log: Permission denied dovecot: Jul 25 02:00:26 Error: POP3(user@mydomain.tld): file_dotlock_open(/var/mail/vhosts/mydomain.tld/user/dovecot-uidlist) failed: Permission denied dovecot: Jul 25 02:00:26 Error: POP3(user@mydomain.tld): Couldn't init INBOX: Can't sync mailbox: Messages keep getting expunged dovecot: Jul 25 02:00:26 Info: POP3(user@mydomain.tld): Mailbox init failed top=0/0, retr=0/0, del=0/0, size=0

I can't see what I am doing wrong...

On Jul 24, 2009, at 8:40 PM, Timo Sirainen wrote:

...

dovecot: Jul 25 01:59:55 Info: Dovecot v1.0.7 starting up dovecot: Jul 25 01:59:56 Error: Temporary failure in creating login processes, slowing down for now dovecot: Jul 25 01:59:56 Error: imap-login: USER environment missing

The only reason why this error would happen is if you have mixed
versions of Dovecot installed.

Actually I was wrong here. The problem is this:

login_executable(imap): /usr/libexec/dovecot/imap

It needs to be imap-login, not imap.

In any case, I'd suggest using 1.2 and not 1.0.

Well. actually the problem with the version number WAS solved, since the problem was, that I was running a mix - after I did what I did, I was no longer running a mix of two versions. But you're right, it's better to be up to date. Now I am running 1.2.1. # dovecot --version returns in 1.2.1 and the log says 1.2.1.

Let's face the other problems...

Albert van Harten Denmark

The directory/files are owned by wrong user, or you have set wrong user to userdb. v1.2 gives better error messages here. http://wiki.dovecot.org/UserIds

Yes, that is also what I figured out. But I am still not a Linux guru (don't tell me anything about Windows, but Linux is still very foggy to me). I googled a lot on chown, chmod, permissions, uid, gid and so on, but I have not a clue how I can change the permissions on a directory, I even don't know if I have to change permissions on /var/mail/vhosts, or /var/mail/vhosts/mydomain.tld or /var/mail/vhosts/mydomain.tld/user or /var/mail/vhosts/mydomain.tld/user/new - and whatsoever....

When looking in /etc/passwd, I can see a user: dovecot:x:101:202:Dovecot IMAP server:/usr/libexec/dovecot:/sbin/nologin

I hope you can help me!

Albert van Harten Denmark

On Sat, 2009-07-25 at 13:38 +0200, FraNL wrote:

After a chown root:root /var/mail/vhosts/mydomain.tld/user chmod 700 /var/mail/vhosts/mydomain.tld/user

Mails shouldn't be owned by root. You should probably pick out some user to use for your mails, such as "vmail" (and create it if it doesn't exist yet). Then configure your userdb to use it.

I get the following error in my log:

Jul 25 13:32:19 dovecot: Fatal: chdir(/var/mail/vhosts/mydomain.tld/user) failed: Permission denied (euid=0(root) egid=1000 UNIX perms seem ok, ACL problem?)

Looks like there was a bug in this logging code. euid wasn't root when chdir() was done. This patch fixes it: http://hg.dovecot.org/dovecot-1.2/raw-rev/25650d7f6b85

FraNL wrote:

And how do I implement that patch?

Grab the source, do a "patch -P0 < file" and recompile.

~Seth

On Thu, 2009-07-30 at 21:18 +0200, A. van Harten wrote:

Mea culpa, mea maxima culpa. I am not a guru. I am just a nerd who just learned the basics of Linux. Everyone says I have to install Dovecot - but no-one is willing to give descent support...

I'm pretty sure your questions would have gotten much worse answers in other IMAP server lists.

"Mails shouldn't be owned by root". Fine, then I change "auth-user" in my dovecot.conf from "root" to "vmail".

auth_user isn't mail user. auth_user can be root. http://wiki.dovecot.org/UserIds lists all users Dovecot needs/uses.

I created a user called vmail, with UID 1000. There is also a group, called vmail, and the GID is 1000. Then what?? Some chown command? Or CHMOD? Made I a mistake on the commands I wrote before?

If you have existing mails/files then yeah:

chown -R vmail.vmail /var/mail

Why do many people EXPECT that I am a guru?

I think having basic Linux administrating skills can be expected when you're installing a mail server.