Hi there, was thinking around of the best place to post this. Initially I thought maybe the Dovecot mailing list but I'm not sure if this is a Dovecot issue or if the issue lies with Postfix, so I figured maybe a more general Linux community. If people have suggestions about where I could post this that may have more people see it who are able/willing to help, I would also appreciate that. I apologise, this post will probably be quite long, so I really do appreciate if anyone takes the time to read it and give advice. Anyway, I was following [this tutorial](https://www.linuxbabe.com/mail-server/setup-basic-postfix-mail-sever-ubuntu) to set up a mail server with Postfix and Dovecot. The tutorial is for Ubuntu but I am using an Alpine Linux server, however the tutorial mostly concerns configuring Postfix and Dovecot which is distro-independent. # Deviations from the tutorial I followed the tutorial with the exceptions of the following (deviations listed in order of the part of the tutorial they deviated from, so hopefully this is easy to follow linearly): My server's hostname is `domain.com` not `mail.domain.com` (`mail.domain.com` is what my MX record points to), but this shouldn't really matter as I configured postfix with: ```conf myhostname=mail.domain.com mydomain=domain.com ``` I installed packages with `apk` not `apt` obviously, and installed Postfix with `doas apk add postfix`. I didn't get the ncurses Postfix configuration popup when I installed or started Postfix. Alpine doesn't auto-start the Postfix service, so I did ```sh doas rc-update add postfix default doas rc-service postfix start ``` I used `doas apk add mailutils --update-cache --repository https://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/edge/testing/` to install and test the mail program. I didn't increase attachment size limit. Alpine doesn't seem to have a `dovecot-imapd` package, so I just installed `dovecot` and `dovecot-lmtpd`. When configuring `/etc/dovecot/conf.d/15-mailboxes.conf`, I also set `Drafts`, `Junk`, and `Sent Messages` to auto-create as well as `Trash`. I started the `dovecot` service the same way I did postfix above. # What works I can send mail with `sendmail` and GNU mailutils `mail`. The following works: ```sh echo "test email" | sendmail my@email.com ``` And ```sh mail -a FROM:me@domain.com my@email.com ``` (where `domain.com` is my Postfix mail server, and `my@email.com` is my existing email address with an external provider) The above results in me receiving the email in my spam folder at `my@email.com` from `me@domain.com`, email all appears normal to me. # The issue I've noticed two problems which may be related. ## Can't log into Thunderbird Firstly, I can't log into Thunderbird. I get the following error: ![](https://scribe.disroot.org/pictrs/image/bbc8077f-c68f-4bb0-b735-3c8a7305a3d6.png) (Transcription: Unable to log in at server. Probably wrong configuration, username or password.) To log in, I am entering my email address at `user@domain.com`, where `user` is my UNIX user (which is part of the `mail` group), and `domain.com` is my domain. I entered my password as my user account's password. Thunderbird seems to recognise my mail server as it auto configured to the following: INCOMING: IMAP, hostname `mail.domain.com`, port 993, SSL/TLS, normal password, username `user` (i.e. without the `@domain.com`) OUTGOING: hostname `mail.domain.com`, port 465, SSL/TLS, normal password, username `user` I have also tried the same configuration with `STARTTLS` and ports 143 and 587, to the same error. ## Can't receive mail I've also tried to send myself emails from my other email addresses. I've tried two of my external email addresses so far. My email clients say they've sent the emails and they appear in my Sent folder, however my Protonmail has sent me some emails today from their mailer daemon complaining that ` Your email could not be delivered for more than 12 hour(s).`: ``` : host domain.com[MY IP] said: 454 4.7.1 : Relay access denied (in reply to RCPT TO command) ``` I've checked `/var/log/messages` (which is the Alpine Linux syslog) and found the following, which I don't know how to interpret: ``` Nov 2 17:57:03 domain mail.info postfix/smtpd[28188]: connect from mail-41103.protonmail.ch[185.70.41.103] Nov 2 17:57:03 domain mail.info postfix/smtpd[28188]: Anonymous TLS connection established from mail-41103.protonmail.ch[185.70.41.103]: TLSv1.3 with cipher TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384 (256/256 bits) key-exchange X25519 server-signature ECDSA (prime256v1) Nov 2 17:57:04 domain mail.info postfix/smtpd[28188]: NOQUEUE: reject: RCPT from mail-41103.protonmail.ch[185.70.41.103]: 454 4.7.1 : Relay access denied; from= to= proto=ESMTP helo= Nov 2 17:57:04 domain mail.info postfix/smtpd[28188]: disconnect from mail-41103.protonmail.ch[185.70.41.103] ehlo=2 starttls=1 mail=1 rcpt=0/1 data=0/1 rset=1 quit=1 commands=6/8 ``` I have dovecot configured to use the maildir format (or at least I think I do; I followed the tutorial to set it up to use maildir) but I don't see anything in my `~/Maildir` directory. Running GNU `mail` results in the output: ``` Cannot open mailbox /var/mail/user: No such file or directory No mail for user ``` # My configuration Output of `postconf -n`: ``` command_directory = /usr/sbin compatibility_level = 3.9 daemon_directory = /usr/libexec/postfix data_directory = /var/lib/postfix debug_peer_level = 2 debugger_command = PATH=/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/X11R6/bin ddd $daemon_directory/$process_name $process_id & sleep 5 home_mailbox = Maildir/ html_directory = no inet_protocols = ipv4 mail_owner = postfix mailbox_size_limit = 0 mailbox_transport = lmtp:unix:private/dovecot-lmtp mailq_path = /usr/bin/mailq manpage_directory = /usr/share/man meta_directory = /etc/postfix mydomain = domain.com myhostname = mail.domain.com myorigin = $mydomain newaliases_path = /usr/bin/newaliases queue_directory = /var/spool/postfix readme_directory = /usr/share/doc/postfix/readme sample_directory = /etc/postfix sendmail_path = /usr/sbin/sendmail setgid_group = postdrop shlib_directory = /usr/lib/postfix smtp_header_checks = regexp:/etc/postfix/smtp_header_checks smtp_tls_loglevel = 1 smtp_tls_mandatory_protocols = !SSLv2, !SSLv3, !TLSv1, !TLSv1.1 smtp_tls_protocols = !SSLv2, !SSLv3, !TLSv1, !TLSv1.1 smtp_tls_security_level = may smtp_tls_session_cache_database = btree:${data_directory}/smtp_scache smtpd_tls_cert_file = /etc/letsencrypt/live/mail.domain.com/fullchain.pem smtpd_tls_key_file = /etc/letsencrypt/live/mail.domain.com/privkey.pem smtpd_tls_loglevel = 1 smtpd_tls_mandatory_protocols = !SSLv2, !SSLv3, !TLSv1, !TLSv1.1 smtpd_tls_protocols = !SSLv2, !SSLv3, !TLSv1, !TLSv1.1 smtpd_tls_security_level = may smtpd_tls_session_cache_database = btree:${data_directory}/smtpd_scache smtputf8_enable = no unknown_local_recipient_reject_code = 550 ``` Output of `doveconf -n`: ``` # 2.3.21.1 (d492236fa0): /etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf # OS: Linux 6.6.58-0-lts x86_64 # Hostname: domain.com auth_debug = yes auth_mechanisms = plain login auth_username_format = %n auth_verbose = yes log_path = /var/log/dovecot.log mail_debug = yes mail_location = maildir:~/Maildir mail_privileged_group = mail mbox_write_locks = fcntl namespace inbox { inbox = yes location = mailbox Drafts { auto = create special_use = \Drafts } mailbox Junk { auto = create special_use = \Junk } mailbox Sent { special_use = \Sent } mailbox "Sent Messages" { auto = create special_use = \Sent } mailbox Trash { auto = create special_use = \Trash } prefix = } passdb { args = scheme=CRYPT username_format=%u /etc/dovecot/users driver = passwd-file } protocols = imap lmtp lmtp service auth { unix_listener /var/spool/postfix/private/auth { group = postfix mode = 0660 user = postfix } } service lmtp { unix_listener lmtp { group = postfix mode = 0600 user = postfix } } ssl = required ssl_cert = rip= lport=993 rport=59318 local_name=mail.domain.com resp= Nov 02 18:11:11 auth: Debug: passwd-file(user,,): Performing passdb lookup Nov 02 18:11:11 auth: Debug: passwd-file(user,,): lookup: user=user file=/etc/dovecot/users Nov 02 18:11:11 auth: Info: passwd-file(user,,): unknown user Nov 02 18:11:11 auth: Debug: passwd-file(user,,): Finished passdb lookup Nov 02 18:11:11 auth: Debug: auth(user,,): Auth request finished Nov 02 18:11:13 auth: Debug: client passdb out: FAIL 3 user=user original_user=user@domain.com Nov 02 18:11:13 imap-login: Debug: Ignoring unknown passdb extra field: original_user Nov 02 18:11:13 imap-login: Info: Disconnected: Connection closed (auth failed, 3 attempts in 22 secs): user=, method=PLAIN, rip=, lip=, TLS, session= ``` Thanks for reading this fairly long post. Do ask if I need to provide any more configs, logs, etc. Appreciate any help, thanks in advance