Bo Grimes wrote:
set postmaster "fred" <------ should this be root or
postmaster?
In fetchmail, the postmaster should most likely be you.
/var/log/mail/mail.log doesn't seem to have anything useful.
Look for exim stuff.
2005-09-29 14:15:06 H=localhost [127.0.0.1] F=<fred(_at_)isp(_dot_)com>
temporarily rejected RCPT <fred(_at_)localhost>: failed to open /etc/aliases
for linear search: Permission denied (euid=112 egid=112)
That's odd, but I don't know what exim's permissions are supposed to be.
/etc/aliases should probably be readable by everyone.
What I'm trying to figure out, because I think it would help, is just
how Evolution, et al send mail successfully. When I set up a graphical
MUA I set the smtp as smtp.isp.com; however, my machine has to use some
MTA that has to use my smtp to get it to my isp's smtp, right? I
assume that's Exim, so why does it work for Evolution?
The graphical MTAs have SMTP client routines built in. You tell them what
SMTP server to relay to, and that's where they send the mail. They
completely bypass the MTA installed on your machine.
Since configuring an MTA correctly can be complicated and difficult, using
the graphical programs is the best option for most people -- and even for
many who know the ins and outs of setting up an MTA but just don't want
to bother with it on their desktop machine.
The change you're trying to make is a big one -- it's not like changing
from Kmail to Evolution. However, you may be able to bypass most of the
issues by telling mutt to talk directly to your ISP's mail server.
(Though I don't remember anymore whether mutt can use SMTP directly or
requires a sendmail-equivalent to send.)
My /etc/exim/config files have stuff about aliases, so it looks like
I'm on the right path here, though /etc/aliases is a sendmail and smail
file that Exim doesn't use except for compabitility, it seems.
/etc/aliases is pretty universal; just about every MTA can at least be
configured to use it.
Your primary problem is definitely at the MTA level. Depending on how far
you're gotten with Exim, I might recommend replacing it with Postfix,
which I find quite a bit simpler to configure. (Though Exim is much
easier to configure than Sendmail is.)
You mentioned that you have both exim and sendmail; it's quite likely that
the sendmail you found is actually exim's "sendmail" command, rather than
the actual Sendmail MTA. Unix programs that send mail expect to find a
program called sendmail (unless they have built-in SMTP routines), so
every Unix MTA provides such a program.
Sorry I'm getting pissy, and I'm sure it's obvious, but over the last 6
years of using Linux as just a regular home user coming from Windows
with no tech background whatsoever it just seems Linux folk shoot their
wounded.
I understand.
The thing is, you're starting to get into much more technical areas that
require understanding more about what the different pieces do and how
they work together. Basically, up to now you've been using the surface
"Windows-like" aspects of Linux, and now you're starting to see some of
the deeper "Unix-like" aspects, which is an ocean of things to know.
There are multiple pieces that fit together, and it's important to be
able to narrow down which piece is the problem. You've already begun to
see that the log messages are an important part of that, for example.
--
==============================| "A microscope locked in on one point
Rob Funk <rfunk(_at_)funknet(_dot_)net> |Never sees what kind of room that
it's in"
http://www.funknet.net/rfunk | -- Chris Mars, "Stuck in Rewind"
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