Major problems getting mail working on Ubuntu 9.04

I'm having a hellish time getting postfix working according to this tutorial:

http://flurdy.com/docs/postfix

I was able to send the test email immediate after getting postfix running, but after getting through the rest of it, now nothing works.

Would I just be better off starting over at this point? This is more than a little over my head, too (LAMP servers are one thing, but mail servers are foreign to me). Is there any kind of preconfigured package available that'd make this easier?

3 Replies

Hi Sean,

I completely empathize with your situation. I am personally revisiting a different setup myself (please see this thread: http://www.linode.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=4233)

What I'd suggest is that you not go about installing the IMAP / AV components without first fully wrapping your head around Postfix.

Once you fully grasp the postfix config, then add another slice and retest your setup. Do bear in mind that alot of headaches arise due to the types of authentications enabled, user account privileges, and improperly setup MX records (along with any other DNS issues).

To get support (of any kind) you definitely need to post your config information, process services, and relevant mail logs. I suggest you use the Linode pastebin service ( http://p.linode.com/ ) for that (to reduce the bulk of your post). Hopefully you will get a better response from the community than I did.

All the best,

I'm sure there are reasons, but I don't know why most people don't just use something like Google to deal with mail. Their spam filtering is better than anything I've seen anyone else hack together. I haven't had to think about or worry about my email (or spam) for over 3 years now.

If you need to send email from your server (I haven't done this yet so don't know if it works as expected) But this is what I'm planning on following:

https://www.linode.com/forums/viewtopic … 1379#21379">https://www.linode.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=21379#21379

@waldo:

I'm sure there are reasons, but I don't know why most people don't just use something like Google to deal with mail.

some reasons for me:

  • privacy concerns

  • the ability to control my own mail, filtering, etc

  • spamassassin + a little scripting is just as good as gmail filtering

  • the ability to backup/restore my mail with rsync (maildir format)

  • ability to use postmaster account (google takes over the postmaster@ account)

but, given that, for normal usage, gmail is a good way to go if you don't want to muck around with an email server – or manage things.

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