help needed to configure Fetchmail
 

Hello,
I have installed fetchmail and it sort of works,but I get some errors.Let me explain:

If I send an email to myself with the message ghgfhfghfghfhfhfghfgfg and then type
#fetchmail -v
in the terminal, I get:

[ludwig@localhost ludwig]$ fetchmail -v
fetchmail: 6.2.2 querying mail.plus.net (protocol POP3) at Fri 16 May 2003 01:41:44 BST: poll started
fetchmail: POP3< +OK <31056.1053045598@pop3.plus.net>
fetchmail: POP3> CAPA
fetchmail: POP3< -ERR authorization first
fetchmail: authorization first
fetchmail: POP3> USER zzzzx
fetchmail: POP3< +OK
fetchmail: POP3> PASS
fetchmail: POP3< +OK
fetchmail: POP3> STAT
fetchmail: POP3< +OK 1 882
fetchmail: POP3> LAST
fetchmail: POP3< +OK 0
1 message for zzzzx at mail.plus.net (882 octets).
fetchmail: POP3> LIST
fetchmail: POP3< +OK
fetchmail: POP3< 1 882
fetchmail: POP3< .
fetchmail: POP3> TOP 1 99999999
fetchmail: POP3< +OK
reading message zzzzx@mail.plus.net:1 of 1 (882 octets)
fetchmail: SMTP connect to localhost failed
fetchmail: POP3> QUIT
fetchmail: POP3< ghgfhfghfghfhfhfghfgfg
fetchmail: SMTP transaction error while fetching from mail.plus.net
fetchmail: 6.2.2 querying mail.plus.net (protocol POP3) at Fri 16 May 2003 01:41:48 BST: poll completed
fetchmail: Query status=10 (SMTP)
fetchmail: normal termination, status 10
[ludwig@localhost ludwig]$


So ,it picked up the mail i sent to myself with the line:
fetchmail: POP3< ghgfhfghfghfhfhfghfgfg

but then i got an error:
fetchmail: SMTP transaction error while fetching from mail.plus.net

In my .fetchmailrc file , I have :

poll mail.plus.net with proto pop3
user zzzzx there with password XXXXXX is ludwig here

(where mail.plus.net is my pop3 server, my user name is zzzzx and my pasword is XXXXXX)

the error speaks about an SMTP server error,but I only specified a pop3 server in the .fetchmailrc file cos I only wanted to be notified as to when mail was arriving.


What have I done wrong?


PS. please remember that I'm fairly new and don't understnad a lot of what I'm doing,so if you could keep things simple,I would appreciate it :)

regs
Ludwig

Fetchmail needs a "Mail Delivery Agent". Check your fetchmail config for a "mda" line which could read "mda "/usr/bin/procmail -d %s"", meaning procmail delivers your mail to the right mailspool or mailfolder.

how can I go through and check that file? it's about 1000 pages long.It would take me a week to read it

surely there's an easier way to do this than read through hte whole file looking for one line that I might miss anyway???

1K pages long? I don't think so, unless you've been playing weird games with your box :-]
Anyway, try "grep /path/to/fetchmailrc -ne "mda"" (w/o outer quotes) and it should return all hits and on which line in the file they are. Now do "vi /path/to/fetchmailrc +number", where number is one of the results from grep. That'll open the file at the right position. If you're in X, you can use gvim instead of vi, or use any editor you're comfortable with.

ok, myabe 1000 was a slight exageration. :)

I did the grp thing and got back:
[root@localhost ludwig]# grep /usr/local/bin/fetchmailconf -ne mda
235: self.mda = None # Mail Delivery Agent
272: ('mda', 'String'),
392: for fld in ('smtpaddress', 'preconnect', 'postconnect', 'mda', 'bsmtp',
'properties'):
1646: self.mda, '26').pack(side=TOP, fill=X)

So I guess that from line 235 that there is no mda and that line 272 invites me to name one.Is that right?

ok,now what do Itype in there?
is it 'mda' '/usr/bin/procmail -d %s' ?
and do i keep the quote marks in?


thx for your help

Ludwig

can anyone else help me with this?

Well, well... getting impatient?..
Btw, yeah /usr/local/bin/fetchmailconf will be BIG. Looking at the ).pack(side=TOP, fill=X) thingie I think it's a wish script, and NOT the file you are going to edit. Fetchmailconf is the X application you use to configure you fetchmail.conf WITH.
Execute it to make a fetchmail.conf and then test it.

so what you are saying is that I have to edit fetchamil.conf.
Is that right?
When i type fetchmailconf I get:
[ludwig@localhost ludwig]$ fetchmailconf
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/local/bin/fetchmailconf", line 9, in ?
from Tkinter import *
ImportError: No module named Tkinter

what do I do with that?

Oh. Tkinter. That's not Tk/Tcl, that's Python :-] Check if you got the Tkinter rpm installed.
*If this is too much trouble for just making a fetchmail.conf you can do it from the commandline, with help from the manual (man fetchmail) using a text editor, ain't that hard, really.

ok,thanks for the info.
Just installed Tkinter and that gives me the fetchmailconf GUI

Now,if I hit novice configurator, I get two things to fill in:
Poll interval and new server.

What should I put in there to get my mail from my pop3 email account?

would I be correct in assuming that server is my pop3 server and that interval is the time between checks?

Yes and yes, and would *I* be correct in assuming running "man fetchmailconf" on your box didn't return any usefull information (also /usr/share/doc/fetchmail(conf)/*)?

yes,it didn't give me anything I understand. As I've said before,people in Linux world seem incapable of speaking in simple terms that normal people can understand. That's why I'm forced to ask stupid questions on this board, I'm afraid

Anyway, the problem i have now is that ,if I type "fetchmail" in the terminal nothing happens,even though I know I have mail waiting to be delivered.

If I open up Mozilla-mail , it won't check for any new mail but I can send mail.
However, as soon as I kill fetchmail from the terminal, then mozilla mail starts getting the mail.
What's going on there?
Why isn't fetchmail fetching the mail?


cheers
Ludwig

***EDIT: sorry, but mozilla mail WILL check for mail..it's just that nothing is delivered as long as fetchmail is running****

Ok, ok. Fetchmail is run doing something like "fetchmail -f /path/to/your/fetchmail.conf". If you didn't specify using a logfile or syslog in the config, add "--logfile /path/to/logfile" or "--syslog" on the commandline. Run, then check the logfile or /var/log/maillog or /var/log/messages, depending on where syslog sends it.

If you want to see the options fetchmail uses try "fetchmail -V -v -f /path/to/your/fetchmail.conf 2>&1>/tmp/fetcmaildump0" and read the output from /tmp/fetcmaildump0.

If you want to see the config fetchmail uses in full try fetchmail -f /path/to/your/fetchmail.conf --configdump 2>&1>/tmp/fetcmaildump1" and read the output from /tmp/fetcmaildump1.

If looking at the logs doesn't show a clue, I'd suggest you post the commandline how you start fetchmail and your config (/tmp/fetcmaildump1). Make sure you edit out any information we don't need to see like passwds etc.

let me ry and take this one step at a time:

1. I did a search for fetchmail.conf and there is no such file on my system
Do you mean fetchmailconf?
If so,that is /usr/local/bin/fetchmailconf

2.If I run:
#fetchmail -f /usr/local/bin/fetchmailconf as you suggest,
I get:

[ludwig@localhost ludwig]$ fetchmail -f /usr/local/bin/fetchmailconf
File /usr/local/bin/fetchmailconf must have no more than -rwx--x--- (0710) permissions.

what should I do now?


You say:



If you remember,all I did was run the fetchamailconf gui and put in two things that it asked for: interval and server (which I put in as my pop3 email server)






so your saying to add either "--logfile /path/to/logfile" or "--syslog" to
"fetchmail -f /usr/local/bin/fetchmailconf" ???
Is that right?
so it would look like:
fetchmail -f /usr/local/bin/fetchmailconf fetchmail --logfile /path/to/logfile??


Is it really this hard to get fetchmail to work?????
I know you are trying to help,but I think we're just getting lost here.
I can't believe that it can be this hard.

This whole stupid process started out when I just thought that it would be nice to have a little box in the bottom of the screen that told me when I got an email.
Someone told me about bbmail, which I installed but hey! guess what? It didn't work. I went to their web page and it was written in linux geek speak,so I gave up.
Then I heard about another program that did something similar (wmbiff, I think) and tried to install that.:same result.:totally unintelligable.
then someone said they would help me with this other program, but they disapeared and never really helped me.
So I decided to come back to bbmail and try again
I emailed ,out of desperation, one of the people that developed it and he said I needed fetchmail.
I didn't know what fetchmail was (and still don't really) but tried to install it.
Now,it turns out that getting it to work is nigh on impossible .

Sorry if I sound frustrated,but I really don't know where to go for help.