Please help with postfix configuration (also apt problem)
 

Hi,
So I am relatively new to Linux.
I have a VPS (Virtual Private Server) running Debian 4 etch and it is giving me some trouble - installing various packages and what not.
For example, I am trying to install webmin using apt-get and it bombs with:
<snip>
W: Couldn't stat source package list cdrom://[Debian GNU/Linux 4.0 r2 _Etch_ - Official i386 CD Binary-1 20080102-13:35] etch/contrib Packages (/var/lib/apt/lists/Debian%20GNU_Linux%204.0%20r2%20%5fEtch%5f%20-%20Official%20i386%20CD%20Binary-1%2020080102-13:35_dists_etch_contrib_binary-i386_Packages) - stat (2 No such file or directory)
W: Couldn't stat source package list cdrom://[Debian GNU/Linux 4.0 r2 _Etch_ - Official i386 CD Binary-1 20080102-13:35] etch/main Packages (/var/lib/apt/lists/Debian%20GNU_Linux%204.0%20r2%20%5fEtch%5f%20-%20Official%20i386%20CD%20Binary-1%2020080102-13:35_dists_etch_main_binary-i386_Packages) - stat (2 No such file or directory)
W: You may want to run apt-get update to correct these problems
</snip>
Ironically, if I try to run apt-get update I receive the exact same error message.
That is one issue, and pardon me for digressing as I originally wanted to post looking for some help with configuring e-mail flow.
For the purposes of my post you can assume all DNS records are configured properly (MX, A, CNAME).
I scoured the forum and the best I could find was to edit the "configuration file" for postfix under etc/postfix to create user mailboxes.
Ok, great, so I VI'ed main.cf and master.cf, but I could not identify where or how to modify which one in order to create mail boxes :scratch:
For right now I would be happy with just one mailbox for myself other than root.
Thanks in advance for indulging me!
Dov

Edit the /etc/apt/sources.list file and comment out hte CDROM line.. Update and try again. although I don't think webmin is in etch.. you ned to download the .deb from webmin.com and use dpkg to install it.

wget http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/w..._1.400_all.deb
dpkg -i webmin_1.400_all.deb

I just use regular users with postfix.. nothing fancy. Create a normal user, postfix uses courier-maildrop to deliver mail to a Maildir folder in the users directory.. unfortunately it looks like how-to forge retired the how-to I used when I initially set it up..

Postfix doesn't use maildrop by default, but will deliver to either mbox or maildir directly, depending on setup.

That did sound like I was implying that maildrop was used by default with postfix, didn't it? Not my intention at all, I was only referring to my particular setup. Thanks for pointing out my poorly worded description to avoid confusion for the OP. :)

I know - wording goes out the door a bit in these fora doesn't it.

apt works but have questions on postfix
 

Billy, Slayer...
Thanks for your replies.
To be perfectly "Frank" <g> you guys are way over my head.
I want to thank you also for the instructions on retrieving and installing webmin.
Would you mind telling me whether or not I will be able to administer postfix once I have webmin installed?
:o
If it is not obvious the majority of my experience has been in Windows.
For me, a graphical interface to administer my mail Server would be really helpful.
I checked out howtoforge.net (thanks for that too! wealth of knowledge and resources) but was unsuccesful in locating a "how to" on working with mbox and/or maildir. I am guessing these are "helper" tools to process incoming mail?
Would you please explain the process of what exactly each piece does? What I mean is, what exactly is the role of postfix? And then where do the other two fit in?
Thanks once again for your indulgence.
Your humble servant,
Dov

It depends what you mean by administer. postfix is jut a mail transfer agent (MTA) that eith recieves mail via smtp and delivers it locally or forwards it to another server (elsewhere on the net for instance).

Once set up, there's very little to administer. Adding users isn't a postfix issue necessarily - normally you would either add a user to the server (a unix user) or a virtual user (a postfix thing). Which yo do wil ldepend on what you are trying to acheive. The former is what farslayer means by normal users. If you only have two isers on your machine (root and yourself) then these shoudl both be able to receive email.

Why don't you let us know what you are trying to do and we can help you with that. i don't think we know enough from your original post.


Rgds

Hi Billy!
Thanks for taking an interest...in my cause :-)
I intend to use this machine as a List Server, for my own purposes, and a Web Server as well.
I would like to create an alias e-mail address webmaster@example.com, and have that directed to my own mailbox at example.com and be able to retrieve the e-mail from my Outlook client.
As far as the List Server goes, I am studying up on Mailman and will try to educate myself before looking for help here. But I must say, now that I have it installed and running, the web adminisration interface makes it relatively straightforward.
Cheers!
Dov

Well the aliase is easy

Edit /etc/aliases

You will probably find a line in there that says

webmaster: root

or some thing like that.

Change this to

webmaster: the_username_to_redirect_to

then

postalias /etc/aliases

and that's done.


If the address is on a different domain, simply change that to

webmaster: the_username_to_redirect_to@example2.com

Easy (note this assumes your server is set up as a destination fo example.com).


www.postfix.org has a good list of howtos