dovecot - Dec 2007 - Help with logging in and getting mail

Hi,

Very new to dovecot and to using POP3/IMAP (from this perspective anyway).

First things first, per the instructions from the web site:

dovecot version: 1.0.5

dovecot config:
# 1.0.5: /usr/local/etc/dovecot.conf
protocols: imap pop3
ssl_disable: yes
disable_plaintext_auth: no
login_dir: /var/run/dovecot/login
login_executable(default): /usr/local/libexec/dovecot/imap-login
login_executable(imap): /usr/local/libexec/dovecot/imap-login
login_executable(pop3): /usr/local/libexec/dovecot/pop3-login
verbose_proctitle: yes
first_valid_gid: 0
mail_extra_groups: mail
mail_location: mbox:~/mail/:INBOX=/var/mail/%u
mail_executable(default): /usr/local/libexec/dovecot/imap
mail_executable(imap): /usr/local/libexec/dovecot/imap
mail_executable(pop3): /usr/local/libexec/dovecot/pop3
mail_plugin_dir(default): /usr/local/lib/dovecot/imap
mail_plugin_dir(imap): /usr/local/lib/dovecot/imap
mail_plugin_dir(pop3): /usr/local/lib/dovecot/pop3
imap_client_workarounds(default): delay-newmail outlook-idle netscape-eoh 
tb-extra-mailbox-sep
imap_client_workarounds(imap): delay-newmail outlook-idle netscape-eoh 
tb-extra-mailbox-sep
imap_client_workarounds(pop3): outlook-idle
pop3_uidl_format(default):
pop3_uidl_format(imap):
pop3_uidl_format(pop3): %08Xu%08Xv
pop3_client_workarounds(default):
pop3_client_workarounds(imap):
pop3_client_workarounds(pop3): outlook-no-nuls oe-ns-eoh
auth default:
  mechanisms: plain digest-md5
  user: vmail
  passdb:
    driver: sql
    args: /usr/local/etc/dovecot-sql.conf
  userdb:
    driver: sql
    args: /usr/local/etc/dovecot-sql.conf


Please help me diagnose what is causing the following problem.  Essentially, 
this user is a virtual user.  I have it so that the system user, vmail, is 
the basket into which all virtual users e-mail goes.  If my understanding is 
correct (and please enlighten me if it's not), mail aliases are setup 
to "map" aliased names into a real account.  From there, dovecot will
return
e-mail to the virtual user based upon the "To" field of the e-mail,
correct?

I have some aliases in my sendmail config that do just this.  From the error 
below, it would seem that dovecot is actually authenticating the virutual 
user "jdunkin" in this case, but can't get some directories made. 
I've seen
on my FreeBSD system that each system user has a "mail" file in the 
directory, /var/mail/<userid>.


What needs to be done further?  Also, how do I ensure that virtual users are 
able to get their mail as well as system users?

Dec 29 15:01:54 whitbap dovecot: pop3-login: Login: user=<jdunkin>, 
method=PLAIN, rip=71.221.168.29, lip=192.168.2.23
Dec 29 15:01:54 whitbap dovecot: POP3(jdunkin): 
mkdir_parents(/var/mail/vmail//mail) failed: Not a directory
Dec 29 15:01:54 whitbap dovecot: POP3(jdunkin): Failed to create storage with 
data: mbox:/var/mail/vmail//mail/:INBOX=/var/mail/jdunkin
Dec 29 15:01:54 whitbap dovecot: child 61793 (pop3) returned error 89

Thanks,
Andy

On Sat, 2007-12-29 at 14:00 -0700, Andrew Falanga wrote:
> mail_location: mbox:~/mail/:INBOX=/var/mail/%u
..
>   userdb:
>     driver: sql
>     args: /usr/local/etc/dovecot-sql.conf
..
> Dec 29 15:01:54 whitbap dovecot: POP3(jdunkin): 
> mkdir_parents(/var/mail/vmail//mail) failed: Not a directory
Your SQL lookup returns "/var/mail/vmail/" as the user's home
directory.
You'll need to have a proper per-user directory as their home. For
example have the user_query return '/home/virtual/%u' as home. See
http://wiki.dovecot.org/VirtualUsers#homedirs

Also setting auth_debug=yes and mail_debug=yes may be helpful when
figuring out why things don't work right.

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On Saturday 29 December 2007 14:20:47 Timo Sirainen
wrote:
> On Sat, 2007-12-29 at 14:00 -0700, Andrew Falanga wrote:
> > mail_location: mbox:~/mail/:INBOX=/var/mail/%u
>
> ..
>
> >   userdb:
> >     driver: sql
> >     args: /usr/local/etc/dovecot-sql.conf
>
> ..
>
> > Dec 29 15:01:54 whitbap dovecot: POP3(jdunkin):
> > mkdir_parents(/var/mail/vmail//mail) failed: Not a directory
>
> Your SQL lookup returns "/var/mail/vmail/" as the user's home
directory.
> You'll need to have a proper per-user directory as their home. For
> example have the user_query return '/home/virtual/%u' as home. See
> http://wiki.dovecot.org/VirtualUsers#homedirs
Ok, I'm beginning to grasp this.  However, my understanding is still 
incomplete somehow.  The changes I've made thus far are:

1) now, all virtual users have a "home" directory in /virtusers/%u
2) home field in the PostgreSQL database says, /virtusers/<userid>

The errors as before are no longer being shown.  However, as I stated before, 
I have sendmail configured with aliases to "map" a virtual users, such
as
jdunkin, to the system user vmail.  This user is getting all the mail for the 
aliases (virtual user accounts).  How do I get the mail to each virtual user?
>
> Also setting auth_debug=yes and mail_debug=yes may be helpful when
> figuring out why things don't work right.
Thank you for the help with this.  I didn't know about the debug things.

Andy