How do I create a new Postfix user account?

I made a correction to my dovecot.conf file.  The * was missing from the following two lines.
imap_listen =
pop3_listen =

Once I added the * the mail accounts started being created when I created a new user account.  I am not using LDAP or SQL.

When I send mail from my Windows machine to the new server (mailhost2) I do not get any errors, but I do not receive any mail in my mail boxes.  The dns record is correct. Is it possible that I need to open a port?

I ran nmap -sT and ports 25 and 110 are open.

please refer /var/log/maillog (or similar) to check what happens to emails sent to Your server.
It's possible, that postfix drops emails to different place, than dovecot want to pick it up from.

Feb  9 13:27:47 mailhost2 pop3-login: Login: boss [192.168.1.xxx]
Feb  9 13:27:47 mailhost2 pop3(boss): mkdir_parents(/home/boss/mail/.imap/INBOX) failed: Permission denied
Feb  9 13:27:47 mailhost2 pop3(boss): Couldn't open INBOX: Internal error occured. Error report written to server log. [2006-02-09 13:27:47]

Within an hour or so, I will be leaving to go to some CCNA training.  I will be back at work Monday.  I don't want anyone to think that I am ignoring all the Expert help.

Where do I find the server log?

is there directory /home/boss/mail/.imap ? Should be.
Where postfix delivers it emails? (in main.cf something like mailbox_command or mailbox_transport)
And if ailbox_command is procmail, check where procmail delivers it's input (it should be /etc/procmailrc). Procmail defaults to mailbox in /var/spool/mail/username

Yes there is a .imap directory

This is my main.cf file.  I removed all the rem statements.

queue_directory = /var/spool/postfix
command_directory = /usr/sbin

daemon_directory = /usr/libexec/postfix

mail_owner = postfix

myhostname = mailhost2.company.com

mydomain = company.com

# SENDING MAIL

myorigin = $mydomain

# RECEIVING MAIL

inet_interfaces = $myhostname, localhost

mydestinatin = $myhostname, $mydomain, localhost


local_recipient_maps = unix:passwd.byname $alias_maps


unknown_local_recipient_reject_code = 550

# TRUST AND RELAY CONTROL

mynetworks_style = subnet

relay_domains = $mydestination

# INTERNET OR INTRANET

# REJECTING UNKNOWN RELAY USERS

# ALIAS DATABASE

alias_maps = hash:/etc/aliases

alias_database = hash:/etc/aliases

# DELIVERY TO MAILBOX

mail_spool_directory = /var/spool/mail

# DEBUGGING CONTROL

debug_peer_level = 2

debugger_command =
       PATH=/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/X11R6/bin
       xxgdb $daemon_directory/$process_name $process_id & sleep 5

# INSTALL-TIME CONFIGURATION INFORMATION

sendmail_path = /usr/sbin/sendmail.postfix

newaliases_path = /usr/bin/newaliases.postfix

mailq_path = /usr/bin/mailq.postfix

setgid_group = postdrop

html_directory = no

manpage_directory = /usr/share/man

sample_directory = /usr/share/doc/postfix-2.1.5/samples

readme_directory = /usr/share/doc/postfix-2.1.5/README_FILES

smtpd_sasl_auth_enable = yes
smtpd_sasl_security_options = noanonymous
broken_sasl_auth_client = yes

smtpd_recipient_restrictions = permit_sasl_authenticated, permit_mynetworks, check_relay_domains

message_size_limit = 20971520
mailbox_size_limit = 104857600

I have been looking at my config files and I was wondering if the file /etc/hosts is correct.

127.0.0.1 mailhost2.company.com localhost
192.168.1.21 mailhost2.company.com mailhost2

mailhost2 is the name of the mail server
company.com is the domain name

from main.cf
> # DELIVERY TO MAILBOX
> mail_spool_directory = /var/spool/mail
the mail is delivered to to /var/spool/mail/boss file(look into it), for user boss. Then imap looks for it in /home/boss/mail/.imap/INBOX

Also
> Feb  9 13:27:47 mailhost2 pop3(boss): mkdir_parents(/home/boss/mail/.imap/INBOX) failed: Permission denied
suggests, that there is /home/boss/mail file (should be dir) or /home/boss/mail/.imap file (should be dir)

Your hosts is propably fine.

I have the following directories under home:
/home/boss/mail/.imap/inbox in this directory I see INBOX what is INBOX is a directory or a file? I cannot cd to it nor can I do a vi on it?

home/boss/mail is a dir  do the permissions make a difference?  What should the group be?


/var/spool/mail/boss exists where boss is a file of 0 bytes

I have looked at the files in both home and /var/spool/mail  all the files are 0 bytes.

When I send an email to an existing user on mailhost2, I do not get an error.  I am assuming that the email got sent to the server, however, the email does not appear in any file.   Either /var/spool/mail or /home/username.

/var/mail is linked to /var/spool/mail

I logged on to mailhost2 in the GUI and I emailed the boss@mailhost2.  The message appeared to be sent.  Evolution shows it in my sent box.  I have tried to find the file, but no luck.  I looked in /home/boss and also in /var/spool/mail/boss.

It looks like you have a different config for retrieving mail than for delivering it. Have you tried changing delivery method on Postfix to Maildir?

How do I changing delivery method on Postfix to Maildir and why do you think this would help?

In main.cf, add this line:

home_mailbox = Maildir/

Your log output shows:

mkdir_parents(/home/boss/mail/.imap/INBOX) failed: Permission denied

This tells me that the client is using IMAP, and it's looking in the user's home directory for the mail files. IMAP works better and more easily with Maildir format as opposed to mbox formatted mailboxes. What you may need to still do, tho, is configure the IMAP server to prepend the mailbox path with Maildir (instead of mail) so that

/home/boss/mail/.imap/INBOX

would become

/home/boss/Maildir/.imap/INBOX

I made the change to the main.cf file.  I added the line to the end of the file and rebooted the computer.

Nothing is showing up when we try to retrieve the email.  The boss tries to check his email by accessing the email server (mailhost2)

I also have webmin installed and when I go to read user mail and look at boss, there is nothing there.  I can use webmin to send an email from the mailserver to my other account.

Follow the mail delivery log and then send an e-mail in to the machine. Post the log information here.

Something like:

tail -f /var/log/mail

Should do what you need.

[root@mailhost2 ~]# tail -f /var/log/mail
tail: error reading `/var/log/mail': Is a directory
tail: /var/log/mail: cannot follow end of this type of file; giving up
on this name
tail: no files remaining

I emailed myself from mailhost2 to my company account.  I received the email and I replied to it.  It did not show up on mailhost2.

I logged onto mailhost2 and in the GUI I opened Evolution.  I clicked on send/receive mail.  The screen shows:
Server: Mailhost2, Type:pop
Retrieving POP summary (looks like it timed out)

Server: mailhost.company.com, Type: smtp
Complete

Mailhost.company.com is the current mail server that we will want to eventually replace.

You need to find the mail log file (you found a directory).

grep mail /etc/syslog.conf

That will at least tell you where the mail information is being logged.

Also - replying to an e-mail sent from the box may be useless. If the message does not contain useful return information, who knows where it will go. Just keep that in mind...

Find the mail file, and try again.

I want to thank everyone for all the help.  I'm feeling like a newby with this email server.


[root@mailhost2 mail]# grep mail /etc/syslog.conf
# Log anything (except mail) of level info or higher.
*.info;mail.none;news.none;authpriv.none;cron.none
             /var/log/messages
# Log all the mail messages in one place.
mail.*
-/var/log/maillog

[root@mailhost2 log]# tail -f /var/log/messages
Feb 15 12:20:01 mailhost2 crond(pam_unix)[4006]: session closed for user root
Feb 15 12:20:02 mailhost2 crond(pam_unix)[4007]: session closed for user root
Feb 15 12:25:01 mailhost2 crond(pam_unix)[4020]: session opened for user root by (uid=0)
Feb 15 12:25:02 mailhost2 crond(pam_unix)[4020]: session closed for user root
Feb 15 12:30:01 mailhost2 crond(pam_unix)[4022]: session opened for user root by (uid=0)
Feb 15 12:30:01 mailhost2 crond(pam_unix)[4023]: session opened for user root by (uid=0)
Feb 15 12:30:01 mailhost2 crond(pam_unix)[4022]: session closed for user root
Feb 15 12:30:02 mailhost2 crond(pam_unix)[4023]: session closed for user root
Feb 15 12:35:01 mailhost2 crond(pam_unix)[4036]: session opened for user root by (uid=0)
Feb 15 12:35:01 mailhost2 crond(pam_unix)[4036]: session closed for user root
Feb 15 12:40:01 mailhost2 crond(pam_unix)[4044]: session opened for user root by (uid=0)
Feb 15 12:40:01 mailhost2 crond(pam_unix)[4045]: session opened for user root by (uid=0)
Feb 15 12:40:01 mailhost2 crond(pam_unix)[4044]: session closed for user root
Feb 15 12:40:02 mailhost2 crond(pam_unix)[4045]: session closed for user root

Ok. Go back to my previous post and use

tail -f /var/log/maillog

In place of

tail -f /var/log/mail


Try that, post results...

[root@mailhost2 log]# tail -f /var/log/maillog
Feb 15 13:51:07 mailhost2 pop3-login: Login: jimn [192.168.1.210]
Feb 15 13:51:07 mailhost2 pop3(jimn): mkdir_parents
(/home/jimn/mail/.imap/INBOX) failed: Permission denied
Feb 15 13:51:07 mailhost2 pop3(jimn): Couldn't open INBOX: Internal
error occured. Error report written to server log. [2006-02-15 13:51:07]
Feb 15 13:53:03 mailhost2 pop3-login: Login: bwilson [192.168.1.133]
Feb 15 13:58:22 mailhost2 pop3-login: Login: bwilson [192.168.1.133]
Feb 15 14:01:07 mailhost2 pop3-login: Login: jimn [192.168.1.210]
Feb 15 14:01:07 mailhost2 pop3-login: Login: jnichols [192.168.1.210]Feb
15 14:01:07 mailhost2 pop3(jimn): mkdir_parents
(/home/jimn/mail/.imap/INBOX) failed: Permission denied
Feb 15 14:01:07 mailhost2 pop3(jimn): Couldn't open INBOX: Internal
error occured. Error report written to server log. [2006-02-15 14:01:07]
Feb 15 14:03:04 mailhost2 pop3-login: Login: bwilson [192.168.1.133]

A) There is no indication of an e-mail being sent in to that machine. This could be a major part of the problem.

B) The POP3 server is still configured to look at /home/<user>/.imap for mail files. This needs to be fixed. In addition, there appears to be a misconfiguration in terms of the permissions that the system has/is running with to access user mailboxes.

Dovecot is running
Postfix is running

If I ping
mailhost2  I get a reply and it shows the ip address correctly.

But, you still haven't shown from the MAILLOG file that an e-mail made it to the box and was placed somewhere. You need to keep tailing the maillog file while sending messages to the box and capture log information that shows that.

I found a typo in the following line and I corrected it mydestinatin needed an o in it: mydestination
mydestinatin = $myhostname, $mydomain, localhost

I also changed the following line:
smtpd_recipient_restrictions = permit_sasl_authenticated, permit_mynetworks, check_relay_domains
to read
smtpd_recipient_restrictions = permit_sasl_authenticated, permit_mynetworks, reject_unauth_destination

I rebooted the server
and
tail -f /var/log/maillog

I do not see any difference from yesterday except for the date.

What is the following line telling me?  I show up today as well as yesterday.

 mkdir_parents
(/home/jimn/mail/.imap/INBOX) failed: Permission denied

The fact that there is no information in the maillog file is telling you that NO MESSAGES are being received on the server for processing. You need to figure out where your messages that you are attempting to send to this new box are actually going.

The last line of your post is telling you that your POP/IMAP server daemon does not have permission to create an INBOX folder in the home directory of the user you are logging in as to check mail.

I checked my /etc/postfix/main.cf file and there is a queue and process ownership section and it talks about a dedicated user

mail_owner = postfix

does this imply that there needs to be a user called postfix?

should I create a user called postfix?

Yes, you need a postfix user.

BUT

This still doesn't clear up the issue with permissions for your POP/IMAP daemon. THIS IS A DIFFERENT PROGRAM.

Were do I look to see why there is a permission issue?
 My boss had me do a ls -l on the /var/spool/mail directory and he noticed that the group name for each file was mail.
Is that correct?

[root@mailhost2 mail]#  netstat -nap | grep ":110"
tcp        0      0 0.0.0.0:110                 0.0.0.0:*
LIST EN      2145/dovecot

dovecot is and has been running

I looked at dovecot.conf and it looks like it is correct.

The boss also had me go to the existing server and copy his files to mailhost2.  Exist server is using sendmail and is going bad. Currently, everyone can access their email on the old server (mailhost) except the boss.  They are being forwarded to his blackberry.  

I move his email file to /var/spool/mail/boss and I can see the messages via webmin, however, when he tries to connect to mailhost2, it asks for his password and when he enters it correctly, it appears to lock up.  This email file is 88MB.