Dovecot config not compatible with the one in HowToForge

GraysonPeddie · 04-19-2012, 12:29 AM

The article states that it's for Arch, but it should work for Debian Sid with the use of apt-get instead of pacman. Anyway, here's what I'm having trouble with.

Here's the article that I'm having trouble with:
http://www.howtoforge.com/arch-linux...ix-and-dovecot

Code:

apt-cache policy dovecot
root@debian-server:/home/grayson# apt-cache policy dovecot-common
dovecot-common:
  Installed: 1:2.0.18-1
  Candidate: 1:2.0.18-1
  Version table:
     1:2.1.4-1 0
          1 http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ experimental/main amd64 Packages
 *** 1:2.0.18-1 0
        500 http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ unstable/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
root@debian-server:/home/grayson# apt-cache policy dovecot-core
dovecot-core:
  Installed: 1:2.0.18-1
  Candidate: 1:2.0.18-1
  Version table:
     1:2.1.4-1 0
          1 http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ experimental/main amd64 Packages
 *** 1:2.0.18-1 0
        500 http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ unstable/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
root@debian-server:/home/grayson#

This is what I used to have from HowToForge with my changes from :

Code:

protocols = imap imaps 
disable_plaintext_auth = yes 
log_timestamp = "%b %d %H:%M:%S " 
ssl = yes 
ssl_cert_file = /etc/ssl/certs/graysonpeddie.crt 
ssl_key_file = /etc/ssl/private/graysonpeddie.key 
mail_location = maildir:~/Maildir 
mail_access_groups = mail 
auth_username_chars = abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ01234567890.-_@ 
protocol imap {   
  imap_client_workarounds = delay-newmail tb-extra-mailbox-sep 
} 
auth default 
{   
  mechanisms = plain 
  login   passdb pam {   }
  userdb passwd {   }
  user = root   
  socket listen {     
    client {       
      path = /var/run/dovecot/auth-client       
      user = postfix       
      group = postfix
      mode = 0660     
    }
  } 
}

Here's mine:

Code:

# 2.0.18: /etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf
# OS: Linux 3.3.0-rc6-amd64 x86_64 Debian wheezy/sid
protocols = imap
disable_plaintext_auth = yes
log_timestamp = "%b %d %H:%M:%S "
ssl = yes
ssl_cert = /etc/ssl/certs/graysonpeddie.crt
ssl_key = /etc/ssl/private/graysonpeddie.key
mail_location = maildir:~/Maildir
mail_access_groups = mail
auth_username_chars = abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ01234$
protocol imap {
  imap_client_workarounds = delay-newmail tb-extra-mailbox-sep
}
auth default {
  auth_mechanisms = plain login
  passdb = pam
  userdb = password
  socket listen {
    client {
      path = /var/run/dovecot/auth-client
      user = postfix
      group = postfix
      mode = 0660
    }
  }
}

Well, here's what happened with dovecot -n:

Code:

# 2.0.18: /etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf
doveconf: Warning: NOTE: You can get a new clean config file with: doveconf -n > dovecot-new.conf
doveconf: Warning: Obsolete setting in /etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf:15: add auth_ prefix to all settings inside auth {} and remove the auth {} section completely
doveconf: Fatal: Error in configuration file /etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf line 17: Unknown setting: auth_passdb
root@debian-server:/home/grayson#

I've been looking for the howto articles long and hard trying to find anything up-to-date (like 2012) and all I've been looking for is out-of-date articles as postfix -n told me to replace ssl_cert_file with ssl_cert, ssl_key_file with ssl_key, replace this with that, add auth_ prefix to everything inside the auth{} section and remove auth{} but dovecot complains even more with warnings, and this is getting very endless.

Is dovecot obsolete? Without any up-to-date howto guide for setting up dovecot, I'm confused.

descendant_command · 04-19-2012, 02:04 AM

This is mine:

Code:

stargate:~# dovecot -n
# 1.2.15: /etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf
# OS: Linux 2.6.32-5-686 i686 Debian 6.0.4 
log_timestamp: %Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S 
login_dir: /var/run/dovecot/login
login_executable: /usr/lib/dovecot/imap-login
mail_privileged_group: mail
mbox_write_locks: fcntl dotlock
namespace:
  type: private
  separator: /
  inbox: yes
  list: yes
  subscriptions: yes
auth default:
  mechanisms: plain login
  verbose: yes
  passdb:
    driver: pam
  userdb:
    driver: passwd
  socket:
    type: listen
    client:
      path: /var/spool/postfix/private/auth
      mode: 432
      user: postfix
      group: postfix

Maybe you are using a dovecot 2.x conf instead of 1.2.x ...

Noway2 · 04-19-2012, 04:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by descendant_command

Maybe you are using a dovecot 2.x conf instead of 1.2.x ...

That was my thought too. If you are migrating from version 1, you will get warnings about certain functions being deprecated and, or not supported along with a message about "running dovecot -n" or something to that effect. What that will do is give you a cleaned up configuration file that converts the settings to the new format.

GraysonPeddie · 04-19-2012, 08:36 AM

I've just installed dovecot afresh, not migrating. I'll give it a try.

Update: Would you mind posting your configuration file instead of dovecot -n? I'm not getting it about the ":" as it is expecting "=" instead.

Noway2 · 04-19-2012, 10:02 AM

Here is my Dovecot2 configuration. As long as I created or copied the files in the correct directories, they had the proper context for SELinux. You will need to be careful of that and if you are using SELinux check with an ls -aZ. This was "cleaned up" by the auto modification tool from a Dovecot 1 configuration.

Code:

# 2.0.14: /etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf
auth_mechanisms = plain cram-md5 digest-md5
base_dir = /var/run/dovecot/
first_valid_uid = 5000
last_valid_uid = 5000
log_timestamp = "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%s "
mail_location = maildir:/var/mail/%d/%n
#managesieve_notify_capability = mailto
#managesieve_sieve_capability = fileinto reject envelope encoded-character vacation subaddress comparator-i;ascii-numeric relational regex imap4flags copy include variables body enotify environment mailbox date
passdb {
  args = /etc/dovecot/dovecot-sql.conf
  driver = sql
}
protocols = imap pop3
service auth {
  unix_listener /var/spool/postfix/private/auth {
    group = postfix
    mode = 0660
    user = postfix
  }
  unix_listener auth-master {
    group = mail
    mode = 0660
    user = vmail
  }
  #user = nobody
#Not sure about this one, it came from the Gentoo Wiki on Dovecot 2
  user = root
}

service auth-worker {
#       user = $default_internal_user
# remembered this from gentoo docs
        user = root
       unix_listener auth-worker {
              user = postfix
       }
}

service imap-login {
  executable = /usr/libexec/dovecot/imap-login
  inet_listener imap {
    address = *
    port = 143
  }
  inet_listener imaps {
    address = *
    port = 993
  }
}
service imap {
  executable = /usr/libexec/dovecot/imap
}
service pop3-login {
  executable = /usr/libexec/dovecot/pop3-login
  inet_listener pop3 {
    address = *
    port = 110
  }
  inet_listener pop3s {
    address = *
    port = 995
  }
}
service pop3 {
  executable = /usr/libexec/dovecot/pop3
}
ssl_cert = </etc/postfix/ssl.crt
ssl_key = </etc/postfix/ssl.key
userdb {
  args = /etc/dovecot/dovecot-sql.conf
  driver = sql
}
protocol imap {
  imap_client_workarounds = tb-extra-mailbox-sep
  imap_max_line_length = 64 k
}
protocol pop3 {
  pop3_uidl_format = %08Xu%08Xv
}
protocol lda {
  auth_socket_path = /var/run/dovecot/auth-master
  postmaster_address = postmaster@
  sendmail_path = /usr/lib/sendmail
}

GraysonPeddie · 04-19-2012, 10:49 AM

Okay, I think I figured it out:

[code]passdb { example2 = example3 }

Code:

passdb
{
  driver = pam
}

...and

Code:

passdb {
{
  driver = pam }

all seem to give me errors, so the correct way to write code is:

Code:

passdb {
  driver = pam
}

So after I fixed the problem, this is what I'm getting with dovecot -n:

Code:

# 2.0.18: /etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf
# OS: Linux 3.3.0-rc6-amd64 x86_64 Debian wheezy/sid
auth_mechanisms = plain login
mail_access_groups = mail
mail_location = maildir:~/Maildir
passdb {
  driver = pam
}
protocols = imap
service auth {
  unix_listener auth-client {
    group = postfix
    mode = 0660
    user = postfix
  }
  user = root
}
ssl_cert = /etc/ssl/certs/graysonpeddie.crt
ssl_key = /etc/ssl/private/graysonpeddie.key
userdb {
  driver = passdb
}
protocol imap {
  imap_client_workarounds = delay-newmail tb-extra-mailbox-sep
}

But then I'm still having problem:

Code:

root@debian-server:/home/grayson# ps aux | grep dovecot
root      5169  0.0  0.0  21448   920 ?        Ss   11:47   0:00 /usr/sbin/dovecot -c /etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf
dovecot   5171  0.0  0.0  12988  1016 ?        S    11:47   0:00 dovecot/anvil
root      5172  0.0  0.0  13116  1140 ?        S    11:47   0:00 dovecot/log
root      5175  0.0  0.0  22668  2312 ?        S    11:47   0:00 dovecot/config
root      5181  0.0  0.0   7800   860 pts/0    S+   11:47   0:00 grep dovecot
root@debian-server:/home/grayson# telnet localhost 143
Trying 127.0.0.1...
Connected to localhost.
Escape character is '^]'.
Connection closed by foreign host.
root@debian-server:/home/grayson#

I am so new to Dovecot...

Noway2 · 04-19-2012, 11:54 AM

I would recommend, if you haven't already, turning on debugging in Dovecot. There are about 3 different debugging methods and option in dovecot. I can't recall the off hand, but I think the man and wiki pages discuss them. You should be able to get some information from your mail log, with and without the debugging too.

GraysonPeddie · 04-19-2012, 01:24 PM

Okay. Here is my configuration file for anyone to try out:

Code:

auth_mechanisms = plain login
mail_access_groups = mail
mail_location = maildir:~/Maildir
passdb {
  driver = pam
}
protocols = imap
service auth {
  unix_listener auth-client {
    group = postfix
    mode = 0660
    user = postfix
  }
  user = root
}
ssl_cert = </etc/ssl/certs/dovecot.pem
ssl_key = </etc/ssl/private/dovecot.pem
userdb {
  driver = passwd
}
protocol imap {
  imap_client_workarounds = delay-newmail tb-extra-mailbox-sep
}

This is very basic so it's not going to be that secure.

Once I've restarted Dovecot, here's what I got:

Code:

root@debian-server:/home/grayson# telnet localhost 143
Trying 127.0.0.1...
Connected to localhost.
Escape character is '^]'.
* OK [CAPABILITY IMAP4rev1 LITERAL+ SASL-IR LOGIN-REFERRALS ID ENABLE IDLE STARTTLS AUTH=PLAIN AUTH=LOGIN] Dovecot ready.

Once I've changed the two lines for dovecot.pem to graysonpeddie.crt and graysonpeddie.key, it also worked. It turns out I have to add a < for both of the lines as shown in my code. Weird.

Noway2 · 04-19-2012, 02:30 PM

Quote:

It turns out I have to add a < for both of the lines as shown in my code.

Now that you mention this, I recall running into this problem too. I think it generated an error message in the log file upon restart and I can't recall where I saw the "fix" documented at, but I think it is one of the new features unique to Dovecot 2, that should be an FAQ.

GraysonPeddie · 04-19-2012, 03:10 PM

Hmm... It seems to me that the ampersand have been ignored.

By the way, it would be nice if the Debian Sid repository contains Dovecot 1 and Dovecot 2, but that is what I get for running Debian Sid as I like to stay in the bleeding edge of things, like Mono 2.10 and MythTV 0.25.

Otherwise, there needs to be howto articles for Dovecot 2 for those who are starting afresh and are using the latest version of their chosen distribution (like CentOS (not a rolling release) or Arch Linux).