Can't send mail on a linux machine

sllinux · 02-26-2009, 10:51 AM

I tried using the mail command on one of our Linux machines to send email, and it works fine. I tried using the same command on another one of our Linux machines, and it didn't work (no error message was returned either).

The machine that works has the following version information:

Code:

esgbuild@bbox003:/etc$ cat /proc/version
Linux version 2.6.12 (root@Knoppix) (gcc-Version 3.3.6 (Debian 1:3.3.6-7)) #2 SMP Tue Aug 9 23:20:52 CEST 2005
esgbuild@bbox003:/etc$ uname -a
Linux bbox003 2.6.12 #2 SMP Tue Aug 9 23:20:52 CEST 2005 i686 GNU/Linux

The machine that does not work has the following version information:

Code:

root@masterd:/opt/automate# cat /proc/version
Linux version 2.6.18-6-686 (Debian 2.6.18.dfsg.1-23etch1) (dannf@debian.org) (gcc version 4.1.2 20061115 (prerelease) (Debian 4.1.1-21)) #1 SMP Fri Dec 12 16:48:28 UTC 2008
root@masterd:/opt/automate# uname -a
Linux masterd 2.6.18-6-686 #1 SMP Fri Dec 12 16:48:28 UTC 2008 i686 GNU/Linux

Can anyone tell me where I might look to see why the one machine can't send email? What configuration files I might want to look at, or what packages are installed or not installed? Thanks.

jdkaye · 02-26-2009, 11:49 AM

For one thing you seem to be running different kernels on the two machines and both are pretty old kernels. (2.6.12 and 2.6.18).
The dates on both machines are off but I don't know if either of these things bears on your problem. Maybe it would be useful if you indicated the error messages you receive when you try to send email on the machine that's a problem. Also how are you sending the email?
cheers,
jdk

sllinux · 02-26-2009, 12:02 PM

I am doing this on both machines:

mail -s "test" myaddress@mycompany.com

I get the email from the one machine, but I don't get any email from the other machine. There is no error message on that machine when I do the mail command.

jdkaye · 02-26-2009, 12:16 PM

Have you verified that the contents of /etc/mail.rc and ~/.mail.rc are the same on both machines. If they aren't then you might try copying the contents of the files on the working machine to the machine that doesn't work.
cheers,
jdk

sllinux · 02-26-2009, 12:23 PM

The /etc/mail.rc files are the same on both machines, and there is no ~/.mail.rc on either machine.

jdkaye · 02-26-2009, 12:50 PM

I've run out of suggestions.
Sorry about that.
jdk

jdkaye · 02-26-2009, 12:50 PM

I've run out of suggestions.
Sorry about that.
jdk

sllinux · 02-26-2009, 12:52 PM

OK, thanks anyway.

Maybe someone else will have an idea.