dovecot - Mar 2009 - Dovecot not accepting connections

Hi, new user here, trying to track down an issue.  Sometimes, after  
starting dovecot, I'll attempt to check mail and will not be able to  
get a connection to my server.  I'll kill dovecot, restart it, and  
usually it will begin working.  When I first ran into this, I first  
tried auth_debug=yes, restarted dovecot, and had no problems.  I'd  
turn set auth_debug=no, restart dovecot, and would be unable to check  
mail.  After a time I determined that setting the debug wasn't really  
effecting anything, it was just hit or miss if I'd be able to get a  
connection.  Once I was able to get a connection, things were fine  
until dovecot started again.

Nothing unusual in the logs, if it works or not, I'll just see this at  
startup:

Mar 25 21:34:48 mail-web-server dovecot[664]: dovecot v1.1.13 starting  
up (core dumps disabled)
Mar 25 21:34:48 mail-web-server dovecot[664]: auth-worker(default):  
mysql: Connected to localhost (postfix)

If debug is on and connections aren't being accepted, I never see  
anything in the logs.


Below is my config.  Running on OS X 10.5.6.  Any info on  
troubleshooting would be appreciated.


mail-web-server:~ wright$ sudo /usr/local/sbin/dovecot -n
Password:
# 1.1.13: /usr/local/etc/dovecot.conf
# OS: Darwin 9.6.0 i386  hfs
protocols: imap imaps pop3 pop3s
ssl_disable: yes
disable_plaintext_auth: no
login_dir: /usr/local/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
login_user: _dovecot
login_max_processes_count: 64
max_mail_processes: 128
first_valid_uid: 27
last_valid_uid: 27
first_valid_gid: 27
last_valid_gid: 27
mail_privileged_group: postfix
mail_uid: 27
mail_gid: 27
mail_location: maildir:/var/mail/vhosts/%d/%n
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
namespace:
   type: private
   inbox: yes
   list: yes
   subscriptions: yes
auth default:
   mechanisms: plain login cram-md5
   passdb:
     driver: sql
     args: /usr/local/etc/dovecot-mysql.conf
   userdb:
     driver: sql
     args: /usr/local/etc/dovecot-mysql.conf
   socket:
     type: listen
     client:
       path: /var/spool/postfix/private/auth
       mode: 432
       user: postfix
       group: postfix

On Mar 25, 2009, at 10:47 PM, Jim wrote:
> Nothing unusual in the logs, if it works or not, I'll just see this  
> at startup:
>
> Mar 25 21:34:48 mail-web-server dovecot[664]: dovecot v1.1.13  
> starting up (core dumps disabled)
> Mar 25 21:34:48 mail-web-server dovecot[664]: auth-worker(default):  
> mysql: Connected to localhost (postfix)
>
> If debug is on and connections aren't being accepted, I never see  
> anything in the logs.
Are you sure errors are also logged to that same log? They might be  
logged elsewhere. See http://wiki.dovecot.org/Logging

And what does "not accepting connections" mean? Does the TCP handshake
finish? For example if you do:

telnet localhost 143

Does it

a) Hang after "Trying 127.0.0.1..."
b) Hang after "Escape character is '^]'."
c) Say connect to address 127.0.0.1: Connection refused