[Dovecot] pop3 gives a permission denied error on chdir

[Kenneth Gonsalves]

hi,

I am running debian lenny standard install and dovecot also as a standard 
install. I have a problem with POP3 access. The error message is:

May 19 09:16:10 greenchilly dovecot: chdir(/home/vmail/example.com/john) 
failed with uid 5000: Permission denied
May 19 09:16:10 greenchilly dovecot: child 26253 (pop3) returned error 89
May 19 09:16:10 greenchilly dovecot: pop3-login: Login: 
user=<john at example.com>, method=PLAIN, rip=127.0.0.1, lip=127.0.0.1, secured

I have looked at the archives and see that the problem has been reported 
before, but cannot find any solution. Dovecot as LDA has no problem accessing 
and writing mails to the directory as UID 5000. I suspect that it is trying to 
access some other directory and the error message is misleading. The directory 
/home/vmail/example.com/john is owned by user vmail with UID 5000. Any clues?

my config:

greenchilly:/etc/dovecot# dovecot -n
# 1.0.15: /etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf 
log_timestamp: %Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S    
protocols: imap imaps pop3 pop3s    
login_dir: /var/run/dovecot/login   
login_executable(default): /usr/lib/dovecot/imap-login
login_executable(imap): /usr/lib/dovecot/imap-login   
login_executable(pop3): /usr/lib/dovecot/pop3-login   
mail_privileged_group: mail                           
mail_location: maildir:/home/vmail/%d/%n/Maildir      
mail_executable(default): /usr/lib/dovecot/imap       
mail_executable(imap): /usr/lib/dovecot/imap
mail_executable(pop3): /usr/lib/dovecot/pop3
mail_plugin_dir(default): /usr/lib/dovecot/modules/imap
mail_plugin_dir(imap): /usr/lib/dovecot/modules/imap
mail_plugin_dir(pop3): /usr/lib/dovecot/modules/pop3
pop3_uidl_format(default):
pop3_uidl_format(imap):
pop3_uidl_format(pop3): %08Xu%08Xv
auth default:
  mechanisms: plain login
  passdb:
    driver: sql
    args: /etc/dovecot/dovecot-sql.conf
  userdb:
    driver: passwd
  userdb:
    driver: static
    args: uid=5000 gid=5000 home=/home/vmail/%d/%n allow_all_users=yes
  socket:
    type: listen
    client:
      path: /var/spool/postfix/private/auth
      mode: 432
      user: postfix
      group: postfix
    master:
      path: /var/run/dovecot/auth-master
      mode: 384
      user: vmail

-- 
regards
Kenneth Gonsalves
Associate
NRC-FOSS
http://nrcfosshelpline.in/web/