[Dovecot] moving 1.2.13 system to another hard drive

[William Blunn]

On 18/09/2010 18:06, Paul Scott wrote:
>> Having said that, having mail delivered to mbox files under 
>> /var/mail, but other folders under Maildir might not be the best 
>> configuration:
>>
>> * to get Dovecot to be able to handle that setup means having two 
>> different mailbox formats which means a namespace configuration,
>>
>> * your INBOX is going to an mbox under /var/mail, which is fraught 
>> with potential locking problems (unless this has somehow magically 
>> been taken care of for you).
>>
>> You may be better off getting all mail delivered straight to Maildir, 
>> thereby making everything Maildir.
>
> That's what I thought was happening since it was happening on the 
> previous setup. OTOH mutt sees the old INBOX but doesn't see the other 
> folders anymore.

I am not an expert on mutt but I believe mutt needs to be specifically 
configured to see mail under Maildir.

>
>> This would then make your Dovecot configuration simpler, and also 
>> remove the potential locking problems of using mbox.
>
> I don't know how to do that. Everything was under Maildir in the 
> previous system and I don't know why it doesn't seem to be now.

To have mail under Maildir, you need to define a local policy that says 
that mail should be stored this way. By "define a local policy", I mean 
something like "sit down and decide to do it in a particular way".

Configurations of various softwares (MTA, IMAP software etc.) should 
then be made to reflect that policy.

For best practice, you should then run tests to make sure that your 
various softwares are behaving according to the policy you defined before.

>>> Any ideas for debugging this certainly simple problem for some of you.
>>
>> Please try to describe a specific symptom or specific symptoms you
>> are experiencing.
>
> Dovecot doesn't seem to be putting mail in the Maildir INBOX.

Which "putting mail" scenario are you thinking of?

1. Where a message is saved into a folder via IMAP

2. Where a message is delivered into a Dovecot-managed mailstore by the 
Dovecot LDA or Dovecot LMTP

If you have not configured your MTA to use Dovecot as its LDA then 
Dovecot won't be responsible for mail delivery, and so mail won't be 
delivered according to the Dovecot configuration. The likely default 
would be for the MTA to deliver mail itself, in which case mail will be 
delivered according to the MTA's configuration.

> Now I see log messages which may make things much clearer. It may be 
> about passwords which are the same on the new system as the old.
>
> Sep 18 09:55:31 bliss dovecot: imap-login: Disconnected (auth failed, 
> 4 attempts): user=<paul>, method=PLAIN, rip=68.0.135.186, 
> lip=192.168.1.102

Authentication doesn't seem to be working. This is almost certainly 
fixable. But I think you need to get a broad grasp of how you want mail 
to be stored on your system and how you can achieve that before getting 
into this fine detail.

>
>> Please provide the output of "dovecot -n".
>
> paul at bliss:~$ sudo dovecot -n
> # 1.2.13: /etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf
> # OS: Linux 2.6.32-5-686 i686 Debian squeeze/sid
> log_timestamp: %Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S
> ssl: no
> disable_plaintext_auth: no
> login_dir: /var/run/dovecot/login
> login_executable: /usr/lib/dovecot/imap-login
> mail_privileged_group: mail
> mail_location: maildir:~/Maildir
> mbox_write_locks: fcntl dotlock
> auth default:
> passdb:
> driver: pam
> userdb:
> driver: passwd
>
>> It might also be an idea to say what MTA you are using.
>
> AFAIK: exim4

Good.

You can configure Exim 4 to deliver mail to Maildir under ~/Maildir --- 
it is all documented in the Exim 4 docs.

Alternatively you can configure Exim 4 to deliver mail using Dovecot. 
This is documented in the Dovecot wiki.

Bill