[Dovecot] Probs authenticating to Dovecot

[Kris Magnusson]

I have triple (trippple) checked the recommended configuration and it is per the how-to. 

The SQL is likely fine. I'm not a SQL maven, but I'm not dumb about SQL, and it passed a couple of inspections.

You're right that telnet localhost 110 doesn't work.

postconf -a reports that it knows about cyrus and dovecot.

I don't really trust this ISPConfig thing, as it likes to do its own stuff that flies in the face of reason, and introducing a DB into the mix just made things an order of magnitude more complicated. I'd rather use OpenLDAP, since I can write JNDI code to figure out what's going on with a directory and even add/modify/delete entries to/in the directory.

I will blow this VM away and start from scratch. Unless anyone has any concrete suggestions I can implement before then that I can use to salvage a day's worth of work.

Is there a best possible OS for running Dovecot/Postfix? That would be a step in the right direction. Ubuntu is great for running WordPress, but I recognize there are different OSes out there. I don't care if it's Linux-based or a BSD distribution. 

Will Dovecot/Postfix scale without a RDBMS backing it up? Or will OpenLDAP suffice?

Thanks much.

Kris

On Apr 15, 2013, at 11:16 PM, Noel Butler <noel.butler at ausics.net> wrote:

> On Mon, 2013-04-15 at 21:43 -0700, Kris Magnusson wrote:
> 
>> Hi folks. I have set up a Ubuntu 12.04 VM with Dovecot, Postfix, MySQL, amavisd, and ISPConfig 3. 
> 
> 
> 
> 
>> tatic IP. I followed the instructions at howtoforge.com to set up and configure this 
> 
> 
> Somebody else recently used some howto from there and had no end of
> troubles.
> 
> 
> 
>> But if I run alpine on mail, I can send and receive mail all day long. Here's a log entry that demonstrates this:
>> 
>> Apr 15 01:20:01 mail postfix/smtpd[4284]: connect from localhost[127.0.0.1]
>> Apr 15 01:20:01 mail postfix/smtpd[4284]: lost connection after CONNECT from localhost[127.0.0.1]
>> Apr 15 01:20:01 mail postfix/smtpd[4284]: disconnect from localhost[127.0.0.1]
> 
> 
> 
>> Apr 15 01:20:01 mail dovecot: pop3-login: Disconnected (no auth attempts in 0 secs): user=<>, rip=127.0.0.1, lip=127.0.0.1, secured, session=<FGhS62HaIwB/AAAB>
> 
> 
> 
> eh? that says you did not log in pop3,  and postfix by default will
> relay for localhost, well, with most configs in  mynetworks having
> localhost it will.
> 
> telnet mail 110
> user username
> pass password
> list
> quit
> ... does that work? I bet it doesn't.
> 
> 
> 
>> root at mail:/etc/dovecot# more dovecot.conf
> 
> dovecot -n   output is best
> 
> 
> 
> 
>> listen = *,[::]
>> protocols = imap pop3
> 
> 
> you use sieve below, but now in proto?
> 
>> auth_mechanisms = plain login
>> disable_plaintext_auth = no
>> log_timestamp = "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S "
>> mail_privileged_group = vmail
>> ssl_cert = </etc/postfix/smtpd.cert
>> ssl_key = </etc/postfix/smtpd.key
> 
> 
> 
>> passdb {
>>  args = /etc/dovecot/dovecot-sql.conf
>>  driver = sql
>> }
> 
> 
> verify your sql is valid by using mysql shell
> 
> 
>> userdb {
>>  args = /etc/dovecot/dovecot-sql.conf
>>  driver = sql
>> }
>> plugin {
>>  quota = dict:user::file:/var/vmail/%d/%n/.quotausage
>>  sieve=/var/vmail/%d/%n/.sieve
>> }
>> service auth {
>>  unix_listener /var/spool/postfix/private/auth {
>>    group = postfix
>>    mode = 0660
>>    user = postfix
>>  }
>>  unix_listener auth-userdb {
>>    group = vmail
>>    mode = 0600
>>    user = vmail
>>  }
>>  user = root
>> }
>> protocol imap {
>>  mail_plugins = quota imap_quota
>> }
>> protocol pop3 {
>>  pop3_uidl_format = %08Xu%08Xv
>>  mail_plugins = quota
>> }
>> protocol lda {
>>  mail_plugins = sieve quota
>> }
>> 
> 
> 
> You need to check your postconf -n   output as well to make sure it
> knows dovecot.
> 
> postconf -a    should show dovecot (maybe cyrus as well, but it needs to
> know dovecot)
> 
> 
>> Any thoughts or recommendations?
> 
> If you followed whatever guide it was in full, and have triple checked
> that, ummm, find another guide? 
>