[Dovecot] disable_plaintext_auth = no ignored by dovecot in Ubuntu 10.04

[David Mattox]

Help!!

I have been trying to get Dovecot configured to allow plaintext auth 
with no success.  After some testing with the mail system I discovered 
the >dovecot -a   commant to dump the config file values from the 
program.  Gee, changing the value of disable_plaintext_auth had no 
effect on what the program reported this value to be!

To eliminate possible errors caused by other config file entries I 
finally restored the /etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf  file that was created by 
installing the package.  I then changed the one line to uncomment 
disable_plaintext_auth and set it equal to no.

restart the box and execute

dovecot -a

The value is still set to the default value of yes...


Help!  What is happening and how to I get this system to allow plain 
text auth without TLS?

I did also try setting different ports for imap, imaps, pop3, pop3s  
inside the seperate protocol blocks with no effect.

Below you will find a partial of the config file.  Below that you will 
find the output of >dovecot -a   and >dovecot -n

Thank you in advance for any help with this problem.

Dave




dave at mail:~$ cat /etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf
## Dovecot configuration file

# If you're in a hurry, see http://wiki.dovecot.org/QuickConfiguration

# "dovecot -n" command gives a clean output of the changed settings. Use it
# instead of copy&pasting this file when posting to the Dovecot mailing 
list.

# '#' character and everything after it is treated as comments. Extra spaces
# and tabs are ignored. If you want to use either of these explicitly, 
put the
# value inside quotes, eg.: key = "# char and trailing whitespace  "
...
#listen = *

disable_plaintext_auth = no




dave at mail:~$ sudo dovecot -n
# 1.2.9: /etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf
# OS: Linux 2.6.32-24-generic i686 Ubuntu 10.04.1 LTS
log_timestamp: %Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S
protocols: imap pop3 imaps pop3s managesieve
ssl_cert_file: /etc/ssl/certs/ssl-mail.pem
ssl_key_file: /etc/ssl/private/ssl-mail.key
ssl_cipher_list: 
ALL:!LOW:!SSLv2:ALL:!aNULL:!ADH:!eNULL:!EXP:RC4+RSA:+HIGH:+MEDIUM
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
login_executable(managesieve): /usr/lib/dovecot/managesieve-login
mail_privileged_group: mail
mail_location: maildir:~/Maildir
mbox_write_locks: fcntl dotlock
mail_executable(default): /usr/lib/dovecot/imap
mail_executable(imap): /usr/lib/dovecot/imap
mail_executable(pop3): /usr/lib/dovecot/pop3
mail_executable(managesieve): /usr/lib/dovecot/managesieve
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
mail_plugin_dir(managesieve): /usr/lib/dovecot/modules/managesieve
imap_client_workarounds(default): outlook-idle delay-newmail
imap_client_workarounds(imap): outlook-idle delay-newmail
imap_client_workarounds(pop3):
imap_client_workarounds(managesieve):
pop3_client_workarounds(default):
pop3_client_workarounds(imap):
pop3_client_workarounds(pop3): outlook-no-nuls oe-ns-eoh
pop3_client_workarounds(managesieve):
lda:
   postmaster_address: postmaster
   mail_plugins: sieve
   quota_full_tempfail: yes
   deliver_log_format: msgid=%m: %$
   rejection_reason: Your message to <%t> was automatically rejected:%n%r
auth default:
   mechanisms: plain login
   passdb:
     driver: pam
   userdb:
     driver: passwd
   socket:
     type: listen
     client:
       path: /var/spool/postfix/private/dovecot-auth
       mode: 432
       user: postfix
       group: postfix
plugin:
   sieve: ~/.dovecot.sieve
   sieve_dir: ~/sieve
dave at mail:~$






dave at mail:~$ sudo dovecot -a
# 1.2.9: /etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf
# OS: Linux 2.6.32-24-generic i686 Ubuntu 10.04.1 LTS
base_dir: /var/run/dovecot
log_path:
info_log_path:
log_timestamp: %Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S
syslog_facility: mail
protocols: imap pop3 imaps pop3s managesieve
listen: *
ssl_listen:
ssl: yes
ssl_ca_file:
ssl_cert_file: /etc/ssl/certs/ssl-mail.pem
ssl_key_file: /etc/ssl/private/ssl-mail.key
ssl_key_password:
ssl_parameters_regenerate: 168
ssl_cipher_list: 
ALL:!LOW:!SSLv2:ALL:!aNULL:!ADH:!eNULL:!EXP:RC4+RSA:+HIGH:+MEDIUM
ssl_cert_username_field: commonName
ssl_verify_client_cert: no
disable_plaintext_auth: yes
verbose_ssl: no