IMAP Login fails

[Rick Stevens]

Karl Pearson wrote:
> On Mon, September 15, 2008 5:49 pm, Rick Stevens wrote:
>> Karl Pearson wrote:
>>> I have a couple webmail applications: Squirrelmail and Hastymail (for
>>> WAP browsers, but it has a few bugs, but it's good to have it to test with)
>>>
>>> Since provisioning a new server, they won't authenticate. They did at
>>> first, but in fixing things, apparently I broke something. Since I did
>>> so much during the first hours bringing the server up, I have no idea
>>> what could have changed things to the point they are now.
>> Which "new server" did you provision...a new web server running the
>> Squirrelmail and/or Hastymail or a new IMAP server that the web server
>> is trying to authenticate against?
>>
>>> In either one, I enter my user name and password, and they respond, SQM:
>>> You must be logged in to access this page, and HM: Login failed.
>> Did you verify the firewalls permit IMAP service (TCP/UDP port 143) or
>> IMAPS (TCP/UDP port 993) if you're using IMAPS?  Did you verify the web
>> server can actually ping the IMAP server (you don't have a bogus route
>> in there somewhere, do you)?
>>
>> Can you get on the web server via a terminal and use telnet to log into
>> the IMAP service?  If you don't know how to do that:
>>
>> 1. On the web server, enter "telnet name-of-IMAP-machine 143"
>> 2. Eventually the IMAP server will respond "OK"
>> 3. Enter "1 login yourusername yourpassword"
>> 4. The IMAP server should respond "1 OK User logged in"
>> 5. Enter "2 logout"
>> 6. IMAP server should respond "2 OK User logged out" and the connection
>> should break.
>>
>> If you don't get a response at item 2 above, then either the IMAP server
>> isn't running an IMAP service or your firewall is blocking port 143.
>> You can see if IMAP is live by getting on the IMAP server and doing
>> the same 6 things, but using "telnet localhost 143" at step 1.  If that
>> works, then you've either got a firewall or routing issue.
>>
>>> I'm suspecting Dovecot or Apache, but can't see anything that might be
>>> causing it. I compare this setup to my previous (old HD mounted in an
>>> external USB housing)
>> Well, let's try the things I listed above first and see where that gets us.
> 
> Nice... I broke it myself. The permissions of the php session directory was
> wrong. I had already gone through everything you said above, before I read
> this email. You know, sometimes I just get too smart for my own britches.
> 
> The php session directory had the wrong group, so it couldn't write to it. But
> that only showed up in /var/log/httpd/ssl_error_log which is the last place I
> would have looked for php authentication errors. Not that it shouldn't be
> there, but I just don't know php very well. Oh, it WAS the last place I
> looked. I guess continuing to look for something after it's found is a sign of
> something I don't have yet.

They're called "senior moments" and I get them often.  :-)

Glad you sorted it out.  You didn't state you were using secure http,
or I would've suggested that.  I assumed a normal Squirrelmail/IMAP
installation.  I know, never assume.
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- Rick Stevens, Systems Engineer                       rps2 at nerd.com -
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