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Dovecot malformed response, transport failure

Hello
I had followed the instructions found here: https://library.linode.com/email/pos...tu-10.04-lucid. I have no experience with setting up email so I am having a hard time figuring out what went wrong. I get this in my mail.warn log file

Quote:

Jul 2 11:41:31 nilandsplace postfix/oqmgr[4028]: warning: private/dovecot socket: malformed response
Jul 2 11:41:31 nilandsplace postfix/oqmgr[4028]: warning: transport dovecot failure -- see a previous warning/fatal/panic logfile record for the problem description
Jul 2 11:41:31 nilandsplace postfix/master[4026]: warning: process /usr/lib/postfix/pipe pid 12512 exit status 1
Jul 2 11:41:31 nilandsplace postfix/master[4026]: warning: /usr/lib/postfix/pipe: bad command startup -- throttling

My mail is stuck in the postfix cue and is not forwarded to Dovecot. In my mail.log file I am getting:

Quote:

Jul 2 12:01:31 nilandsplace postfix/oqmgr[4028]: warning: private/dovecot socket: malformed response
Jul 2 12:01:31 nilandsplace postfix/oqmgr[4028]: warning: transport dovecot failure -- see a previous warning/fatal/panic logfile record for the problem description
Jul 2 12:01:31 nilandsplace postfix/master[4026]: warning: process /usr/lib/postfix/pipe pid 12828 exit status 1
Jul 2 12:01:31 nilandsplace postfix/master[4026]: warning: /usr/lib/postfix/pipe: bad command startup -- throttling
Jul 2 12:01:31 nilandsplace postfix/error[12830]: AABAFA4395: to=<nilandjp@nilandsplace.com>, relay=none, delay=71742, delays=71740/1.5/0/0.01, dsn=4.3.0, status=deferred (unknown mail transport error)
Jul 2 12:01:31 nilandsplace postfix/master[4026]: warning: process /usr/lib/postfix/pipe pid 12829 exit status 1
Jul 2 12:01:31 nilandsplace postfix/oqmgr[4028]: warning: private/dovecot socket: malformed response
Jul 2 12:01:31 nilandsplace postfix/oqmgr[4028]: warning: transport dovecot failure -- see a previous warning/fatal/panic logfile record for the problem description
Jul 2 12:01:31 nilandsplace postfix/error[12830]: 79A77A4394: to=<support@nilandsplace.com>, relay=none, delay=71743, delays=71742/1/0/0, dsn=4.3.0, status=deferred (unknown mail transport error)

I see in other examples the relay should be relay=dovecot but is says none. Also I wanted to know what the user and group are for home/vmail, right now they are set owner vmail and group vmail. I set up the mail from the link and have been over it several times but still get this in my mail.err log:

Quote:

Jul 2 12:21:30 nilandsplace postfix/pipe[13001]: fatal: get_service_attr: unknown username: vmail
Jul 2 12:21:30 nilandsplace postfix/pipe[13002]: fatal: get_service_attr: unknown username: vmail
Jul 2 12:21:30 nilandsplace postfix/pipe[13003]: fatal: get_service_attr: unknown username: vmail

I have not a clue about this last error? vmail user exists.
Thanks for any help
James

Do you even need virtual user?
If you have no specific requirement, just use system users and configure dovecot for that.
if you need virtual users ( because you need to host multiple different domains) then post dovecot -n output.

Dovecot -n output

Here is my Dovecot output. the vmail user was set up along with MySQL to use vmail according to the instructions of the tutorial above. I really have no idea why vmail, I was just following instructions. I don't know how to configure dovecot for system users

Code:

# 1.2.9: /etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf

# OS: Linux 2.6.32-28-generic-pae i686 Ubuntu 10.04.2 LTS ext3

log_timestamp: %Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S 

protocols: imap imaps pop3 pop3s

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

mail_location: maildir:/home/vmail/%d/%n/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_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

namespace:

  type: private

  separator: .

  prefix: INBOX.

  inbox: yes

  list: yes

  subscriptions: yes

lda:

  log_path: /home/vmail/dovecot-deliver.log

  auth_socket_path: /var/run/dovecot/auth-master

  postmaster_address: postmaster@nilandsplace.com

  mail_plugins: sieve

  global_script_path: /home/vmail/globalsieverc

auth default:

  passdb:

    driver: sql

    args: /etc/dovecot/dovecot-sql.conf

  userdb:

    driver: static

    args: uid=5000 gid=5000 home=/home/vmail/%d/%n allow_all_users=yes

  socket:

    type: listen

    client:

      path: /var/spool/postfix/private/auth

      mode: 432

      user: postfix

      group: postfix

    master:

      path: /var/run/dovecot/auth-master

      mode: 384

      user: vmail