asked on

Sendmail Remote Protocol Error

I am installing sendmail for the first time. I sent email from one user id on one workstation to the other workstation. The source workstation is running the standard solaris sendmail and the destination workstation is running 8.9.1 with a default configuration file.

When sending email from the source workstation, I get my email returned with a "Remote Protocol Error". If on the destination file I change back to the standard sendmail then the email makes it there.

How can I fix this ?

David Williams

It's hard to say precisely what the problem is without looking into it, but clearly there is some mismatching of sendmails and also their cf files.
What might be safest and best for you, is to upgrade both workstations to the latest sendmail, and build a new cf file, for this version of sendmail.

Here's (hopefully) simple instructions ...

1/ Use an ftp program to get the latest sendmail (8.9.1) from ftp.sendmail.org, or get it from the Web at www.sendmail.org

2/ Put this into a suitable directory, say /usr/local/src by typing

mv sendmail.8.9.1.tar.gz /usr/local/src

(replace sendmail.8.9.1.tar.gz with the filename you actually download)

3/ uncompress this archive

gunzip sendmail.8.9.1.tar.gz

4/ extract this archive

tar xf sendmail.8.9.1.tar

5/ build sendmail ...

cd sendmail-8.9.1/src
sh Build

6/ Put the sendmail binary where it should be

mv obj*/sendmail /usr/lib/sendmail

7/ set its protections

chmod 4551 /usr/lib/sendmail
chown root /usr/lib/sendmail
chgrp other /usr/lib/sendmail

8/ Go to the configuration file directory

cd ../cf

9/ Make a configuration file called my.mc using an editor, that says ..

OSTYPE(solaris)dnl
DOMAIN(generic)
MAILER(local)
MAILER(smtp)

10/ Build it, using the following -

m4 m4/cf.m4 my.mc > sendmail.cf

11/ Put it in place

mv sendmail.cf /etc/sendmail.cf
chmod 644 /etc/sendmail.cf
chown root /etc/sendmail.cf
chgrp other /etc/sendmail.cf

12/ Run it ...

/usr/lib/sendmail -bd -q15m

andrewmchorney

ASKER

I have already done the build. I was launching sendmail from a different directory. I will do the m4 stuff on Monday morning and test sending mail from one user on one workstation to another user on the other workstation and the reverse.

andrewmchorney

ASKER

I installed the new .cf file on the new workstation. The remote protocol error indicates says "Sender domain must exist". How can I fix this ?

Andrew

andrewmchorney

ASKER

David

I got sendmail to receive and send mail. The reason I am not accepting the answer is that there is an error in step 10 of the above instructions. I worked around it to get the confuration working.

Errors :

1. The OSTYPE ( from step 9 ) should be solaris2. Otherwise it will look for the file solaris.m4 in the ostype directory.

2. The file cf.m4 has a line that defines _CF_DIR_ to be `../' should be `' or else the ../m4/cfhead.m4 file cannot be found. Do you see an easier way to execute lines 9 and 10.

Andrew

andrewmchorney

ASKER

Line 8 should be changed to cd ../cf/m4

Line 10 should be m4 cd.m4 my.mc > sendmail.cf

Otherwise there will be an error in step 10.

David Williams

Thanks for pointing out the errors, sorry about that ! Glad you were able to figure it out ok.

andrewmchorney

ASKER

David

If you want credit for the answer please indicate you have an answer and I will deem it fix with the noted changes.

Andrew

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David Williams

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