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Old 02-02-2010, 09:31 AM   #1
trist007
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Registered: May 2008
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I have a question about dovecot...


I just finished installing postfix and dovecot. I got postfix to work. Trying to setup dovecot to use PAM. I thought PAM always means that it uses the linux login credentials /etc/passwd auto? I enabled pam, yet I think I need to make a mysql database of the credentials. When I start dovecot, I get the error "Warning: There is no way to login to this server: disable_plaintext_auth=yes, ssl=no, no non-plaintext auth mechanisms."

Is it possible to setup dovecot to use PAM based on the /etc/passwd file or do you HAVE to use mysql or postgresql database to hold the credentials?

Last edited by trist007; 02-02-2010 at 09:59 AM.
 
Old 02-02-2010, 10:53 AM   #2
Dave_Devnull
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Does this help?

http://wiki.dovecot.org/PasswordDatabase/PAM
 
Old 02-02-2010, 11:17 AM   #3
trist007
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Nice thanks. I can't seem to find /etc/pam.d or /usr/local/etc/pam.d. Isn't PAM the method that I use to login to my linux computer which checks my credentials against /etc/passwd and /etc/shadow? Shouldn't it be in there already by default? I guess I'm just confused as to what PAM actually is. All the sites are a bit ambiguous. So if PAM is not installed into my computer, when I login with my user/pass from /etc/passwd, what system is being used if it's not PAM?

Last edited by trist007; 02-02-2010 at 11:43 AM.
 
Old 02-02-2010, 11:42 AM   #4
Dave_Devnull
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Reading this: http://www.installationwiki.org/PAM
Says this:
"Slackware is one of the last PAM-free Linux distributions and in UNIX operating systems like AIX, PAM is an add-on product."

Which may be your issue - I can't speak for Slackware.

Last edited by Dave_Devnull; 02-02-2010 at 11:45 AM.
 
Old 02-02-2010, 12:13 PM   #5
trist007
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Thanks a bunch, I'm going to investigate why slackware wouldn't not want to take up PAM and what the advantages/disadvantages of not using PAM are. Thanks a ton.
 
Old 02-02-2010, 02:57 PM   #6
trist007
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After some research I see that I would like to use Name Service Switch with dovecot for authentication. My /etc/nsswitch.conf is up and running. In my dovecot.conf, there is this section of code:

Code:
 # System users (NSS, /etc/passwd, or similiar)
  # In many systems nowadays this uses Name Service Switch, which is
  # configured in /etc/nsswitch.conf. <doc/wiki/AuthDatabase.Passwd.txt>
  passdb passwd {
    # [blocking=yes] - See userdb passwd for explanation
    args =
  }
I removed the comments before 'passdb password {' and the '}'. However, when I start up dovecot, I get this error.

Code:
Warning: There is no way to login to this server: disable_plaintext_auth=yes, ssl=no, no non-plaintext auth mechanisms.
Warning: There is no way to login to this server: disable_plaintext_auth=yes, ssl=no, no non-plaintext auth mechanisms.
So I uncommented the line
disable_plaintext_auth=no

Now dovecot runs without errors. However, when I netcat into port 110, I get this:

Code:
+OK Dovecot ready.
user john
+OK
pass candy
-ERR [IN-USE] Temporary authentication failure.
This username and password are the ones in my /etc/passwd file is used by nss.
Can anybody point me in the right direction.

Last edited by trist007; 02-02-2010 at 03:10 PM.
 
Old 02-03-2010, 02:33 AM   #7
Dave_Devnull
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Beyond my knowledge I'm afraid - sorry I can't be more help to you.
 
Old 02-03-2010, 09:27 AM   #8
trist007
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I was able to fix it by creating a file /etc/passwd.dovecot and populated it with users and passwrds. Here's an example of one user/password:

Code:
john:{PLAIN}scissors21
and added '/etc/passwd.dovecot' to the dovecot.conf
Code:
 passdb passwd-file {
    # File contains a list of usernames, one per line
    args = /etc/passwd.dovecot
    #deny = yes
  }
Now it works great, w00t

Last edited by trist007; 02-03-2010 at 10:11 AM.
 
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Old 02-03-2010, 09:58 AM   #9
Dave_Devnull
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SCORE! Thanks for following up - this will be very helpful to anyone else looking for the answer.
 
  


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