dovecot - Sep 2010 - It's broke but I can't see why

Hi All,

My Dovecot was working I made a change and receive this error

Sep 13 17:01:42 geomail dovecot: imap-login: Internal login failure
(auth failed, 1 attempts): user=<user>, method=PLAIN,
rip=xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx, lip=192.168.1.80, TLS
Sep 13 17:01:43 geomail dovecot: dovecot: Relative home directory
paths not supported (user user):

I had changed

mechanisms = plain
to
mechanisms = plain login

I removed the extra login and it still reports the same error, I must
have changed something else by mistake, but I just cannot see what I
have done, I was stupid and the backup config is older and not working
properly with shared files:-(

dovecot -n gives

# 1.2.9: /etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf
# OS: Linux 2.6.32-24-server x86_64 Ubuntu 10.04.1 LTS ext3
log_timestamp: %Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S
protocols: imaps pop3s
ssl_cert_file: /etc/ssl/certs/ssl-cert-dovecot.pem
ssl_key_file: /etc/ssl/private/ssl-cert-dovecot.key
login_dir: /var/run/dovecot/login
login_executable(default): /usr/lib/dovecot/imap-login
login_executable(imap): /usr/lib/dovecot/imap-login
login_executable(pop3): /usr/lib/dovecot/pop3-login
mail_privileged_group: mail
mail_location: maildir:/home/%u/Maildir
mbox_write_locks: fcntl dotlock
mail_executable(default): /usr/lib/dovecot/imap
mail_executable(imap): /usr/lib/dovecot/imap
mail_executable(pop3): /usr/lib/dovecot/pop3
mail_plugins(default): deleted_to_trash acl imap_acl
mail_plugins(imap): deleted_to_trash acl imap_acl
mail_plugins(pop3):
mail_plugin_dir(default): /usr/lib/dovecot/modules/imap
mail_plugin_dir(imap): /usr/lib/dovecot/modules/imap
mail_plugin_dir(pop3): /usr/lib/dovecot/modules/pop3
imap_client_workarounds(default): delay-newmail outlook-idle netscape-eoh
imap_client_workarounds(imap): delay-newmail outlook-idle netscape-eoh
imap_client_workarounds(pop3):
pop3_client_workarounds(default):
pop3_client_workarounds(imap):
pop3_client_workarounds(pop3): outlook-no-nuls oe-ns-eoh
namespace:
  type: private
  separator: /
  inbox: yes
  list: yes
  subscriptions: yes
namespace:
  type: public
  separator: /
  prefix: public/
  location:
maildir:/var/mail/public/:CONTROL=~/Maildir/control/public:INDEX=~/Maildir/index/public
  list: yes
namespace:
  type: shared
  separator: /
  prefix: shared/%%u/
  location: maildir:%%h/Maildir:INDEX=~/Maildir/shared/%%u
  list: yes
lda:
  postmaster_address: user at domain
  mail_plugins: acl
auth default:
  passdb:
    driver: pam
  userdb:
    driver: passwd
    args: home  socket:
    type: listen
    client:
      path: /var/spool/postfix/private/auth
      mode: 432
      user: postfix
      group: postfix
    master:
      path: /var/run/dovecot/auth-master
      mode: 384
plugin:
  deleted_to_trash_folder: Trash
  acl: vfile
  acl_shared_dict: file:/var/lib/dovecot/shared-mailboxes.db


Thank you

Ian

On Mon, 2010-09-13 at 17:19 +0100, Ian macdonald wrote:
> Sep 13 17:01:43 geomail dovecot: dovecot: Relative home directory
> paths not supported (user user):
..
>   userdb:
>     driver: passwd
>     args: home
I guess you finally got around to trying the "home=" here, and looks
like it doesn't work. Try one of the next possibilities:

userdb passwd {
  args = home
}

userdb passwd {
  args = home=/home/%u/Maildir
}