[Dovecot] "dovecot dead but subsys locked" problem

[Jakob Curdes]

Carla Tironi Farinati schrieb:

> Hi,
>
> Following the advice of someone really helpfull here, I just installed
> Postfix/Dovecot (from rpms). I'm running CentOs 4.4. I followed this
> guide:
> http://www.howtoforge.com/linux_postfix_virtual_hosting
>
> I've got two problems, a)my server is now listed as RCB, whatever that
> means, I suppose that's close to spamming.
> "0: Connection refused. Your IP address is blocked(Spamhaus XBL) - see
> http://www.spamhaus.org/query/bl?ip=216.32.68.90 "
>
That is bad news; you probably built an open relay. Check the numerous 
postfix docs no how to avoid being an open relay - especially configure 
your server to use an AUTH mechanism if it is located in the open 
internet. It is not difficult to secure a postfix server, but you need 
to understand how SMTP works. Probably you should do this BEFORE you 
configure virtual domains and use it for mass mail serving because it 
will be hard to get your server off some of the lists again and in this 
state you will not be able to send much mail. But this all is really 
off-topic for an IMAP server list.

> b)[root at server ssl]# /etc/init.d/dovecot restart
> Stopping Dovecot Imap: [FAILED]
> Starting Dovecot Imap: [ OK ]
>
> [root at server ssl]# /etc/init.d/dovecot status
> dovecot dead but subsys locked
>
I'm not familiar with CentOS - did you try to build DC from source? That 
way you avoid problems with libraries not matching exactly.

>
> I also see in the logs:
> Oct 25 22:50:07 server postfix/virtual[24712]: 48BA5904990:
> to=<carlatf at ithaki.net>, relay=virtual, delay=1, status=deferred
> (mailbox /var/spool/vmail/ithaki.net/carlatf: cannot open file: Is a
> directory)
> Of course it's a directory!. I created it following the guide!
>
Yes, but probably you did not tell postfix that you want to use Maildir 
as format for your mailboxes.
But again : these questions can best be answered on a postfix list.

> I reinstalled Dovecot with the latest sources and nothing.
> I also turn off SSL from dovecot's config file, nothing.
>
Did you try to build DC without SSL using --without-ssl ?
Is th IP address you want to use assigned to an NIC?  Are the ports free ?
What happens when you do a telnet to port143 when dovecot is _NOT_ 
running  ?

Jakob Curdes