Local error in processing ..., Sending mails aborts immediately ..

[jimesh]

Built and installed Xmail 1.20 on a RedHat 6 (linux kernel 2.2.12-20) system. Setup test account 'test', but cannot seem to send mail to or thru the Xmail stmp server (i.e either to another local account or relaying elsewhere.) Now always getting error message back to my client (Outlook Express) of:

'451 Requested action aborted: (-19) local error in processing'

regardless of what I try.

Running as my prime MX server -- not as a mail gatway.

Seems almost certain that it's something in my config or setup, but after several hours of trying things I'm at my wits end trying to figure out what it is. Sure would appreciate some advice at this point.

TIA,

Jim


What I've tried already:

POP3 server works ok for the test account, so passwords using XMCrypt are setup OK.
Checked and simply reset permissions and accounts all the way down.
Running 770 for root:Jim (rather than the recommended 700 root:root.) in /var/MailRoot.

Checked server.tab, smtprelay.tab, et al. setups against the readme and info in this forum -- no obvious problems -- but it sure would help to have an example of a working set of *.tabs for linux, with a description of the server setup.

Found one post here with the same error (i.e. including the -19 error code = file open error) -- his problem was missing subdirs in the spool dir -- checked this -- mine are all there.

Two days ago I was getting other problems and smtp logging was working. I put a DNS resolver IP into dnsroot (which had none before that) to clear a DNS error message and have been getting the above message ever since, AND the smtp server no longer writes anything to the log -- the reject message is instant. It appears the failure is generated now even before XMail opens up the logfile. POP3 logging is still working fine -- both have the same permissions and locations so it's not likely to be a problem opening the log file itself.

Turned on debugging, but nothing appears on STDOUT, which I believe I read somewhere here is where debug output appears-- maybe again because the failure appears too early ???????

Read the Linux install HOW-TO, too, but if there's a clue in there I've missed it.

Running a small business network thru a comcast cable system. Have been running Agomail mail server for several years on this network. It's currently using ports 25 and 110 so testing on Xmail is running on 6025 and 6110 until I can get it working and make the cutover.

[hschneider]

Do a telnet 127.0.0.1 6025 what do you see ?

Do the same from a client with
telnet server_ip 6025
Any output ?

Stop XMail
cd /var/MailRoot/bin
./XMail --debug -Md

Now send a mail from a client. Any debug output ?

[jimesh]

Both loopback and remote connection vai telnet work fine ( and I should have said ports 2025 and 2110 rather than 6025 and 6110) :

[root@nsw2 test]# telnet 127.0.0.1 2025
Trying 127.0.0.1...
Connected to 127.0.0.1.
Escape character is '^]'.
220 <1089831751.36891@nova-sw.com> [XMail 1.20 ESMTP Server] service ready; Wed, 14 Jul 2004 15:02:31 -0400
òòòòò
Connection closed by foreign host.
[root@nsw2 test]#

[Jim@nsw2 Jim]$ telnet 192.168.1.10 2025
Trying 192.168.1.10...
Connected to 192.168.1.10.
Escape character is '^]'.
220 <1089831684.35867@nova-sw.com> [XMail 1.20 ESMTP Server] service ready; Wed, 14 Jul 2004 15:01:24 -0400
òòòò
Connection closed by foreign host.
[Jim@nsw2 Jim]$

Debug output looks good bypassing the startup script, but all that comes out with the attempt to mail from the mail client is the connect and disconnect.

Looks like I'm still stymied:

[root@nsw2 bin]# XMail --debug -Md -Sp 2025
SMAIL thread [00] started
SMAIL thread [01] started
SMAIL thread [02] started
SMAIL thread [03] started
SMAIL thread [04] started
SMAIL thread [05] started
SMAIL thread [06] started
SMAIL thread [07] started
SMAIL thread [08] started
SMAIL thread [09] started
SMAIL thread [10] started
SMAIL thread [11] started
SMAIL thread [12] started
SMAIL thread [13] started
SMAIL thread [14] started
SMAIL thread [15] started
[XMail 1.20 CTRL Server] started
[XMail 1.20 POP3 Server] started
[XMail 1.20 ESMTP Server] started
[XMail 1.20 PSYNC Server] started
[XMail 1.20 FINGER Server] started
LMAIL thread [00] started
LMAIL thread [01] started
LMAIL thread [02] started
SMTP client connection from [155.49.96.45]
SMTP client exit [155.49.96.45]

[hschneider]

In most cases this is a permission or missing file/folder issue. Please try this:
- Stop XMail
- chown -R root:root /var/MailRoot
- Start Xmail

Any changes ?

Double check your folder structure.

If no success, try this:
- Stop XMail
- rm /var/MailRoot/tabindex/*
- Start XMail

Good news now ?

If no, comment out CustMapsList in server.tab and restart Xmail.

[jimesh]

Thanks so much for your help with this, Harald, and sticking with it -- I really appreciate it. I'm determined to get Xmail running this time -- this is my second try in two years.

-- chown -R root:root /var/MailRoot/* => no improvment, still the 451 -19 error

-- ditto chmod -R 700

--unfortunately flushing the indices also did not eliminate the error.

--CustMapsList has been commented out all along -- I was not going to add that until I got the smtp and pop3 functions running successfully.

--My /var/MailRoot matches that given in the Readme.html file - 26 *.tab files + dnroots, and all the same dirs. and sub dirs listed there. In domains/nova-sw.com/test/ I added users.tab today with settings like userdef.tab, but without effect. I have the mailproc.sample.tab and pop3.ipmap.sample.tab in there, too, but assume that they would have no effect, and the actual files are optional, so have no actual mailproc and pop3.ipmap for the test account now.

userdef.tab exists only in MailRoot -- not in domains/nova-sw.com/

There's a file .ipconn dated yesterday in domains/nova-sw.com/test containing only the ip# I was testing from then.

I agree -- sure looks like bad permissions or a missing file/dir somewhere.

Earlied today I emptied dnroots, restarted and tested again. I got back the error I had two days ago, i.e. something like "your email domain has not a dns/mx entry" AND smtp logging occurs again on the incoming message. I've restored a list of three dns resolver ip's in dnsroots since then and logging has stopped -- probably because there is nothing to log before it looks for the missing file/dir. It sure would be nice if it would log the details of that failure, tho.

Can you or Davide tell me what module detects the 451 -19 error? I'll modify it and rebuild XMail to tell me what filename/dirname it can't find -- that should help a lot.

Thanks again. Jim

[jimesh]

OK -- I added a number to the 19 places that give the 451 error message (all in SMTPSvr.cpp) so I can tell them apart and rebuilt and tested. The problem is in the attempt to open a MessageID file message.id somewhere, presumeably to write the messageID of the incoming message to it. Does the installation need to be seeded with a messageID file somewhere -- it won't create one if it doesn't exist?

TIA,

Jim

[jimesh]

That's it -- message.id was missing from MailRoot. Should be ok now. Thanks for the help!

Jim

[hschneider]

Thanks for this valuable feedback!

I agree, using the same err message in 18 places is not very handy. Also not to create a message, if it does not exist. I'll forward this to Davide, to improve in future. THanks!

[vegetto34]

May I ask why you are still running on such an old distribution? If you think its hardware, I've run Fedora Core 2 on a 233mhz Pentium without any trouble. Install XMail RPM, use CtrlClnt to create users, and bam, e-mail server in under an hour.

[jimesh]

Yeah, I'd say that's good advice for people new to XMail -- use an automated installer and get a standard install running first, then customize it gradually and watch for the results of your changes. I am replacing a running server and active accounts and was trying to do the complete config in one step and get tighter security in the process. Xmail config for a newcomer is a little too complex for that and experience with other servers is not all directly transferrable.