Hello List, I am back again and I think I am edging closer to getting a solution. I have done some modifications and now dovecot gives me a different error message than before.... Here is what I have for the password_query and user_query password_query = SELECT popbox.cleartext AS password FROM popbox, domain \ WHERE popbox.local_part = 'eddie' AND popbox.domain_name = 'demo.wananchi.com' \ AND popbox.domain_name = domain.domain_name; +----------+ | password | +----------+ | boeing8 | +----------+ user_query = SELECT CONCAT(domain.path, '/', popbox.mbox_name) as home, \ 69 as uid, 6 as gid FROM popbox, domain WHERE popbox.local_part = 'eddie' \ AND popbox.domain_name = 'demo.wananchi.com' AND \ popbox.domain_name = domain.domain_name; +--------------------------------------------+-----+-----+ | home | uid | gid | +--------------------------------------------+-----+-----+ | /var/spool/virtual/demo.wananchi.com/eddie | 69 | 6 | +--------------------------------------------+-----+-----+ When I test to connect to the pop3 daemon, this is what happens now: root@ns2]#telnet 0 7173 Trying 0.0.0.0... Connected to 0. Escape character is '^]'. +OK Welcome. Dovecot is Ready to serve your emails. user eddie@demo.wananchi.com +OK pass boeing8 -ERR [IN-USE] Internal login failure. Refer to server log for more information. Connection closed by foreign host. ...and this is what dovecot writes to the log: [root@ns2]#less /var/log/dovecot.log dovecot: May 30 12:00:04 Info: auth(default): client in: AUTH 1 PLAIN service=POP3 secured lip=62.8.64.4 rip=62.8.64.4 resp=AGVkZGllQGRlbW8ud2FuYW5jaGkuY29tAGJvZWluZzg= dovecot: May 30 12:00:04 Info: auth-worker(default): mysql: Connected to localhost (virtualemail) dovecot: May 30 12:00:04 Info: auth-worker(default): sql(eddie@demo.wananchi.com,62.8.64.4): query: SELECT popbox.cleartext AS password FROM popbox, domain WHERE popbox.local_part = 'eddie' AND popbox.domain_name = 'demo.wananchi.com' AND popbox.domain_name = domain.domain_name dovecot: May 30 12:00:04 Info: auth(default): client out: OK 1 user=eddie@demo.wananchi.com dovecot: May 30 12:00:04 Info: auth(default): master in: REQUEST 2 36772 1 dovecot: May 30 12:00:04 Info: auth-worker(default): sql(eddie@demo.wananchi.com,62.8.64.4): SELECT CONCAT(domain.path, '/', popbox.mbox_name) as home, 69 as uid, 6 as gid FROM popbox, domain WHERE popbox.local_part = 'eddie' AND popbox.domain_name = 'demo.wananchi.com' AND popbox.domain_name = domain.domain_name dovecot: May 30 12:00:05 Error: child 39853 (auth-worker) killed with signal 11 dovecot: May 30 12:00:05 Info: auth(default): master out: FAIL 2 dovecot: May 30 12:00:05 Info: pop3-login: Internal login failure: user=, method=PLAIN, rip=62.8.64.4, lip=62.8.64.4, secured The output of dovecot -n: # /usr/local/etc/dovecot.conf base_dir: /var/run/dovecot/ log_path: /var/log/dovecot.log protocols: pop3 listen: *:7173 ssl_disable: yes disable_plaintext_auth: no shutdown_clients: no login_dir: /var/run/dovecot/login login_executable: /usr/local/libexec/dovecot/pop3-login login_greeting: Welcome. Dovecot is Ready to serve your emails. login_process_size: 64 login_max_processes_count: 200 verbose_proctitle: yes first_valid_uid: 69 first_valid_gid: 6 mail_extra_groups: exim mail_location: maildir:/var/spool/virtual/%d/%n mail_debug: yes mail_executable: /usr/local/libexec/dovecot/pop3 mail_plugin_dir: /usr/local/lib/dovecot/pop3 pop3_uidl_format: %Mf pop3_client_workarounds: outlook-no-nuls oe-ns-eoh auth default: mechanisms: plain login digest-md5 cram-md5 verbose: yes debug: yes debug_passwords: yes passdb: driver: sql args: /usr/local/etc/dovecot-sql.conf userdb: driver: sql args: /usr/local/etc/dovecot-sql.conf socket: type: listen client: path: /var/run/dovecot/auth-client mode: 432 master: path: /var/run/dovecot/auth-master mode: 384 user: root group: wheel User's mail is stored in /var/spool/virtual/$domain/$user/{new,cur,tmp} The path /var/spool/virtual/ is owned by uid:gid 69:6, and is writeable by that uid. I'd be happy to use a second brain and a third eye to help me figure out the problem. -Wash http://www.netmeister.org/news/learn2quote.html DISCLAIMER: See http://www.wananchi.com/bms/terms.php -- +======================================================================+ |\ _,,,---,,_ | Odhiambo Washington Zzz /,`.-'`' -. ;-;;,_ | Wananchi Online Ltd. www.wananchi.com |,4- ) )-,_. ,\ ( `'-'| Tel: +254 20 313985-9 +254 20 313922 '---''(_/--' `-'\_) | GSM: +254 722 743223 +254 733 744121 +======================================================================+ Democracy is a device that insures we shall be governed no better than we deserve. -- George Bernard Shaw