Hi I have a problem whereby Dovecot 1.0.7 is reporting that a recently setup virtual user in /etc/dovecot_passdb is 'unknown'. I have been trying to setup the user 'info' in a plaintext passwd-file /etc/dovecot_passdb as a virtual user, ie non system user. I suspect I have not properly setup 'info' as a virtual imap user... if so, how should I do this? Existing system users are in '/etc/passdb' and authenticate without problems. System users have their home directory in /home/system_user1/mail/.imap eg /home/system_user1/mail/.imap/INBOX ...file is /var/spool/mail/systemuser1 /home/system_user1/mail/.imap/Sent ... file is in /home/system_user1/mail/Sent /home/system_user1/mail/.imap/Drafts... file is in /home/system_user1/mail/Drafts whereas the postfix virtual user's (username is 'info') mailbox is configured as... call it /var/spool/mail/virtualusersdomain1/info Postfix's virtual_mailbox_base = /var/spool/mail. The virtual_mailbox_domains, including that of user 'info', are a subdirectory of /var/spool/mail This is the log entry produced when user 'info' attempts to login via squirrelmail: PLAIN service=IMAP secured lip=::ffff:127.0.0.1 rip=::ffff:127.0.0.1 resp=<hidden> dovecot: Mar 12 00:32:40 Info: auth(default): passwd-file(info,::ffff:127.0.0.1): lookup: user=info file=/etc/dovecot_passdb dovecot: Mar 12 00:32:40 Info: auth(default): passwd-file(info,::ffff:127.0.0.1): unknown user dovecot: Mar 12 00:32:40 Info: auth(default): pam(info,::ffff:127.0.0.1): lookup service=dovecot dovecot: Mar 12 00:32:40 Info: auth(default): new auth connection: pid=569 dovecot: Mar 12 00:32:42 Info: auth(default): pam(info,::ffff:127.0.0.1): pam_authenticate() failed: Authentication failure dovecot: Mar 12 00:32:42 Info: imap-login: Aborted login: user=<info>, method=PLAIN, rip=::ffff:127.0.0.1, lip=::ffff:127.0.0.1, secured dovecot: Mar 12 00:32:42 Info: auth(default): client out: FAIL 1 user=info So, /etc/dovecot_passdb has ownership root:root, permissions 644 and only the contents: info:{PLAIN}Myplaintextpassword I have tried logging in both as info and also as info at virtualusersdomain1 dovecot -n shows: # 1.0.7: /etc/dovecot.conf log_path: /var/log/dovecot.log login_dir: /var/run/dovecot/login login_executable(default): /usr/libexec/dovecot/imap-login login_executable(imap): /usr/libexec/dovecot/imap-login login_executable(pop3): /usr/libexec/dovecot/pop3-login login_processes_count: 2 mail_executable(default): /usr/libexec/dovecot/imap mail_executable(imap): /usr/libexec/dovecot/imap mail_executable(pop3): /usr/libexec/dovecot/pop3 mail_plugin_dir(default): /usr/lib/dovecot/imap mail_plugin_dir(imap): /usr/lib/dovecot/imap mail_plugin_dir(pop3): /usr/lib/dovecot/pop3 auth default: verbose: yes debug: yes passdb: driver: passwd-file args: /etc/dovecot_passdb passdb: driver: pam userdb: driver: passwd-file args: home=/var/spool/mail/%d/%n mail=mbox:~/mail /etc/dovecot_passdb userdb: driver: passwd args: /etc/passwd This is all that was in orginally in /etc/dovecot.conf: protocols = imap imaps pop3 pop3s disable_plaintext_auth = no protocol imap { } protocol pop3 { } protocol lda { } auth default { mechanisms = plain } passdb pam { } userdb passwd { } user = root dict { } Dovecot runs as root. Anyway, any advice would be great! Thanks