imap and pop3 won't start
 

I am running RedHat 8.0, and I'm trying to set up SquirrelMail. I've installed all of the mail-related packages, but when I try to start either the POP3 or IMAP services, I am informed that I need to enable xinetd in order to use any of them, and the services won't start.

Problem is, xinetd is already running happily.

I can't seem to find any glaring configuration errors. Any suggestions?

v/r
Colby

POP3 and IMAP both require setup information to be installed into the /etc/xinetd.d directory.

If they are not there, add them. If they are there, post them.

my ipop3 entry looks like this:

service pop3
{
socket_type = stream
wait = no
user = root
server = /usr/sbin/ipop3d
log_on_success += USERID
log_on_failure += USERID
disable = yes
}

rather than starting a new thread i figured i'd just ask my question here since i found this thread:


imap runs on port 143 by default right? how do i confirm this once it is running?

Yeah, IMAP runs on port 143. Real quick way to check is to open up a terminal and do 'telnet <server address here> 143'. You should get a welcome message if the server is accepting connections.

thanks, got it.

You can see all internet activity on the system and the programs that are using them by running

netstat --inet -anp

Look for the lines reading LISTEN to see which servers you are running.

GAVollink -

Sorry it took so long to reply. Here's the contents of the files in the /etc/xinetd.d directory:

ipop3:

# default: off
# description: The POP3 service allows remote users to access their mail \
# using an POP3 client such as Netscape Communicator, mutt, \
# or fetchmail.
service pop3
{
disable = yes
socket_type = stream
wait = no
user = root
server = /usr/sbin/ipop3d
log_on_success += HOST DURATION
log_on_failure += HOST
}


imap:

# default: off
# description: The IMAP service allows remote users to access their mail using \
# an IMAP client such as Mutt, Pine, fetchmail, or Netscape \
# Communicator.
service imap
{
disable = no
socket_type = stream
wait = no
user = root
server = /usr/sbin/imapd
log_on_success += HOST DURATION
log_on_failure += HOST
}


There are also ipop2 and imaps files that look similar to these.

v/r
cmritter

Actually, I can't say how embarrassed I am for mis-posting.

Funny - I run pop just fine - but not from the machine I posted it from! :)

Anyway - the thing that's still wrong is your "disable=yes" - which was plain wrong. On same machine - here is the imap entry (the file is called "imap") and it really does work...

service imap
{
socket_type = stream
wait = no
user = root
server = /usr/sbin/imapd
log_on_success += DURATION USERID
log_on_failure += USERID
disable = no
}

>edit> Also check Qzukk 's post above to see if the services are listening. And remember to "HUP" the xinetd process.

GAVollink,

What do you mean by "HUP" the xinetd process?

v/r
cmritter

GAVollink,

By the way, it's working now. I guess my problem was that I didn't know how to see if the service was running properly. Thanks to Qzukk for the netstat command.

v/r
cmritter