Postfix/dovecot: user unrecognized, file permissions being misread

[C. Andrews Lavarre]

Hello all. Have spent several days following the excellent tutorial:

http://www.binarytides.com/install-postfix-dovecot-debian/

but still fail to have the user recognized and am getting log entries
that the mail directories are 0755 when I can clearly see that they are
0774.

Very puzzling, any help would be deeply appreciated.

Best regards, Andy
=========== Details ===========
• I can add directories under IMAP, so my IMAP login and permissions
must be correct.

• I can create an outgoing message under IMAP, but clicking SEND just
hangs. Logs do not indicate problem.

• I clearly can send it a message with smtp. The message is delivered
to postfix, but then dovecot fails to deliver it to a mailbox.
	------------------------------------ Log Entries ---------------------
---------------
	# tail /var/log/mail 
		postfix/qmgr[16390]: 9D6E8C1A77: from=<alavarre at gmail.com>,
size=2794, nrcpt=1 (queue active)
			Message has been received 

		postfix/lmtp[16770]: C218DC197D: to=<alavarre at privustech.com>,
relay=mail.privustech.com[private/lmtp], delay=2560,
delays=2260/0.01/300/0, dsn=4.4.2, status=deferred (conversation with
mail.privustech.com[private/lmtp] timed out while receiving the initial
server greeting)
		lmtp is not working
		
	------------------------------------
 	# tail /var/log/dovecot.log 

		auth-worker(16612): Info:
pam(alavarre at privustech.com,98.179.190.111): unknown user 

		imap-login: Info: Login: user=<alavarre at privustech.com>,
method=PLAIN, rip=98.179.190.111, lip=70.186.159.22, mpid=16615, TLS,
session=<ad;slfj;asfa;> 

		imap(alavarre at privustech.com): Error:
mkdir(/var/mail/vhosts/privustech.com/alavarre/cur) failed: Permission
denied (euid=5000(vmail) egid=5000(vmail) missing +w perm:
/var/mail/vhosts/privustech.com/alavarre, dir owned by 0:0 mode=0755) 
However, the mail directory /var/mail/vhosts/privustech.com/alavarre is
	 -rwxrwxr-- vmail:vmail and I have restarted both postfix and dovecot.

=========================
System is openSUSE Leap 42.1 (64). postfix and dovecot with SASL authentication, connecting through a Unix socket:
	/etc/postfix/main.cf:
		virtual_transport = lmtp:unix:private/lmtp
		
	/etc/dovecot/conf.d/10-master.cf:			service lmtp {
		  unix_listener /var/spool/postfix/private/lmtp {
			mode = 0600
				user = postfix
				group = postfix

		  }
The lmtp socket is owned by postfix, while the mail system is owned by vmail, per the tutorial.

------------------------------

I am using virtual users (not system users) defined in /etc/dovecot/dovecot-users:
	alavarre at privustech.com:{plain}ksaj;flkasjd;ds;f
	
Thanks in advance, Andy