On 26/05/2010 20:32, Brandon Vargo wrote:
> I hope the above helps.
>   

Thank you very much... that was very informative.  Unfortunately, I now
discover I fibbed when I said I had SASL auth set up - I only thought I
had...  When I correctly configure thunderbird, I get the following
postfix messages in the log:

> May 27 17:06:20 ken postfix/smtpd[19973]: connect from
> ur.shic.co.uk[10.0.1.253]
> May 27 17:06:20 ken postfix/smtpd[19973]: warning: SASL authentication
> failure: Could not open /etc/sasl2/sasldb2: gdbm_errno=5
> May 27 17:06:20 ken postfix/smtpd[19973]: warning: SASL authentication
> failure: Could not open /etc/sasl2/sasldb2: gdbm_errno=5
> May 27 17:06:20 ken postfix/smtpd[19973]: warning: SASL authentication
> failure: no secret in database
> May 27 17:06:20 ken postfix/smtpd[19973]: warning:
> ur.shic.co.uk[10.0.1.253]: SASL CRAM-MD5 authentication failed:
> authentication failure
> May 27 17:06:20 ken postfix/smtpd[19973]: NTLM server step 1
> May 27 17:06:20 ken postfix/smtpd[19973]: client flags: ffff8207
> May 27 17:06:20 ken postfix/smtpd[19973]: NTLM server step 2
> May 27 17:06:20 ken postfix/smtpd[19973]: client user: myusername
> May 27 17:06:20 ken postfix/smtpd[19973]: warning: SASL authentication
> failure: Could not open /etc/sasl2/sasldb2: gdbm_errno=5
> May 27 17:06:20 ken postfix/smtpd[19973]: warning: SASL authentication
> failure: Could not open /etc/sasl2/sasldb2: gdbm_errno=5
> May 27 17:06:20 ken postfix/smtpd[19973]: warning: SASL authentication
> failure: no secret in database
> May 27 17:06:20 ken postfix/smtpd[19973]: warning:
> ur.shic.co.uk[10.0.1.253]: SASL NTLM authentication failed:
> authentication failure

I'm sure I'm doing something silly - because googling the first warning
just gives me this bug <http://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=299390>,
which doesn't seem to fit.  I have this installed:

> $ eix mail-mta/postfix
> [I] mail-mta/postfix
>      Available versions:  2.6.5 ~2.6.6 {cdb dovecot-sasl hardened ipv6
> ldap mbox mysql nis pam postgres sasl selinux ssl vda}
>      Installed versions:  2.6.5(09:08:29 05/27/10)(ipv6 pam sasl ssl
> -cdb -dovecot-sasl -hardened -ldap -mbox -mysql -nis -postgres
> -selinux -vda)
>      Homepage:            http://www.postfix.org/
>      Description:         A fast and secure drop-in replacement for
> sendmail.

If I alter thunderbird to not use secure authentication, I get the
following instead.

> May 27 17:14:26 ken postfix/smtpd[20115]: connect from
> ur.shic.co.uk[10.0.1.253]
> May 27 17:14:26 ken postfix/smtpd[20115]: warning: SASL authentication
> problem: unknown password verifier
> May 27 17:14:26 ken postfix/smtpd[20115]: warning: SASL authentication
> failure: Password verification failed
> May 27 17:14:26 ken postfix/smtpd[20115]: warning:
> ur.shic.co.uk[10.0.1.253]: SASL PLAIN authentication failed: no
> mechanism available
> May 27 17:14:26 ken postfix/smtpd[20115]: warning: SASL authentication
> problem: unknown password verifier
> May 27 17:14:26 ken postfix/smtpd[20115]: warning:
> ur.shic.co.uk[10.0.1.253]: SASL LOGIN authentication failed: no
> mechanism available

Which seems quite strange.

My /etc/sasl2/smtpd.conf is the default for gentoo - i.e. it contains
the single config line:

> pwcheck_method:pam

I don't care if I use PAM or something else - as long as it lets me
authenticate.  In the medium term, it would be best if neither IMAP nor
SMTP passwords had any relation to my system password (not that I allow
remote logins unsing it) - but, for the time being, I just want it to
let me authenticate and send from my phone.

By any chance can anyone give me any further clues?