[Dovecot] Okay, so what's with "mail storage creation failed", was Cannot connect to dovecot imap server -- nothing in log

[David Benfell]

Thanks Bill,

I thought I'd gotten that.  I guess, not enough sleep.

So now, when attempting to connect, I'm getting this in the log (and
hurray, I'm now getting far enough to at least have something in the log):

dovecot: 2008-04-17 20:24:41 Error: IMAP(benfell): Namespace 'folders/'
mail storage creation failed with mail location: /home/benfell/imap-folders
dovecot: 2008-04-17 20:24:41 Error: child 7412 (imap) returned error 89
dovecot: 2008-04-17 20:24:50 Info: auth(default): new auth connection:
pid=7413
dovecot: 2008-04-17 20:24:51 Info: auth(default): client in: AUTH      
1       PLAIN   service=IMAP    secured lip=216.240.40.179     
rip=134.154.208.37      resp=AGJlbmZlbGwAVjNvNXk3ZTl1M3I4
dovecot: 2008-04-17 20:24:51 Info: auth(default):
pam(benfell,134.154.208.37): lookup service=dovecot
dovecot: 2008-04-17 20:24:51 Info: auth(default): client out: OK       
1       user=benfell
dovecot: 2008-04-17 20:24:51 Info: auth(default): master in: REQUEST   
2       7408    1
dovecot: 2008-04-17 20:24:51 Info: auth(default):
passwd(benfell,134.154.208.37): lookup
dovecot: 2008-04-17 20:24:51 Info: auth(default): master out: USER     
2       benfell system_user=benfell     uid=1000        gid=1000       
home=/home/benfell
dovecot: 2008-04-17 20:24:51 Error: IMAP(benfell): Ambiguous mail
location setting, don't know what to do with it:
/home/benfell/imap-folders (try prefixing it with mbox: or maildir:)
dovecot: 2008-04-17 20:24:51 Error: IMAP(benfell): Namespace 'folders/'
mail storage creation failed with mail location: /home/benfell/imap-folders
dovecot: 2008-04-17 20:24:51 Info: imap-login: Login: user=<benfell>,
method=PLAIN, rip=134.154.208.37, lip=216.240.40.179, TLS
dovecot: 2008-04-17 20:24:51 Error: child 7415 (imap) returned error 89

What I really want to do here is to use an already existing, and rather
elaborate, set of folders I've been using with mutt for quite a number
of years.

But my life has gotten more complicated and I need to be able to access
this email along with a number of others, remotely.  Evolution seems
adequate to the task, as it can deal (quite nicely, it seems) with a
(groan) Microsoft Exchange server used at my university.

When I first got a message like the above, I interpreted it as meaning
that dovecot wants to create its own directory structure.

So I told the configuration to use a nonexistent directory.  As near as
I can tell in my sleep-deprived condition, that made no difference.

So here's the current configuration:

starshine# dovecot -n
# 1.0.10: /etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf
log_path: /var/log/dovecot.log
log_timestamp: %Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S
login_dir: /var/run/dovecot/login
login_executable: /usr/lib/dovecot/imap-login
mail_privileged_group: mail
mail_location:
maildir:~/Maildir:INBOX=~/failed-to-sort-Maildir:INDEX=%h/imap-folders
namespace:
  type: private
  separator: /
  prefix: folders/
  location: ~/imap-folders
  inbox: yes
auth default:
  verbose: yes
  debug: yes
  debug_passwords: yes
  passdb:
    driver: pam
  userdb:
    driver: passwd
starshine#

Now, what?  Thanks!